U.S. FORCES DESTROYED OIL RIG, RAIDED ANOTHER
U.S. warships destroyed an Iranian oil
platform in the Gulf on Monday and the Navy also raided a
second oil rig in retaliation for Friday's Iranian missile
attack on a U.S. flag tanker, the Pentagon said.
    President Reagan and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger
warned Iran of even stronger countermeasures if the military
escalation between the two countries continued in the volatile
waterway.
    Reagan said he ordered the strike on the first platform by
four U.S. destroyers, which fired about 1,000 five-inch shells
at the Rostam oil rig 120 miles east of Bahrain in the central
Gulf.
    A short time later, Navy personnel boarded a second Iranian
oil platform about five miles to the north and destroyed radar
and communications equipment before leaving the structure, the
Pentagon said.
     Defense Department spokesman Fred Hoffman told reporters
that the second platform had been abandoned by Iranian
personnel during the shelling and destruction of the first rig.
    The United States said both platforms were being used to
keep track of Gulf merchant shipping and to launch speedboat
attacks on such shipping by Iranian Revolutionary guards.
 Reuter
