Oil Depot Hit by Rocket in SW Iran-Sources
Fri March 21, 2003 03:02 PM ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) - An oil refinery depot in southwestern Iran close to the
border with Iraq was hit by a rocket on Friday, and two people were injured,
Iranian government sources told Reuters.
They said it was not clear where the rocket, which hit the depot in the city of
Abadan at around 7:45 p.m., had come from.

Abadan is about 30 miles east of the southern Iraqi city of Basra, and on the
opposite side of the Shatt al-Arab estuary from Iraq's Faw peninsula.

The Faw peninsular was secured earlier by U.S.-led forces advancing into Iraq
from Kuwait as part of a land attack against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's
regime.

Heavy bombing by U.S. and British forces during that attack earlier shattered
windows and caused villagers to flee in panic across the border in Iran,
according to the official IRNA news agency.

Iran, which fought an eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s in which hundreds of
thousands were killed on both sides, has condemned the U.S.-led attack on its
western neighbor, but vowed not to be drawn into the conflict.