Iranian Warplanes Strike Rebel Base Inside Iraq

F-4 Phantom Shot Down in Morning Raid
The Washington Post
April 6, 1992
Reuter
By Peter Smerdon

ASHRAF BASE, Iraq, April 5— Iranian planes bombed an Iranian opposition base in the Iraqi desert today in their first airborne incursion into Iraq since a 1988 cease-fire between the two Persian Gulf states.

Antiaircraft batteries shot down one plane, and the exiled Iranian rebel group, the People’s Mojahedin, said it captured two Iranian crewmen.

The Mojahedin showed foreign journalists bomb damage at Ashraf base, about 60 miles from Baghdad and the same distance from Iran’s border, and the still-burning wreckage of the downed P4 Phantom, its wings perforated by bullets.

Iran said its planes had attacked in response to a raid by the rebels on two border villages Saturday evening.

Officers of the rebel group said a dozen Iranian F-4 Phantoms and F-5s attacked this morning in six waves, dropping bombs, firing rockets and strafing roads and vehicles.
One rebel was reported killed in the raid, and a spokesman said five more were slightly injured.

The Mojahedin said the Phantom’s pilot and navigator were captured after ejecting from their plane, which smashed into a dirt embankment nine miles from the base.
An Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman said Iraqi antiaircraft gunners were responsible for shooting down the plane.

“Iraq warns the reckless Iranian regime of the consequences of this impudent aggressive act and holds it fully responsible for the grave results,” said the spokesman, adding that Baghdad had sent a letter of protest to the United Nations.

The official Iraqi News Agency said President Saddam Hussein visited the Iraqi air force headquarters after the raid, but the agency gave no details.

Iraq flew more than 80 of its own jet fighters to Iran in January 1991, shortly after the start of the Persian Gulf War, but it was not clear whether any of those jets were used in today’s Iranian raid.

Iran’s official news agency said the rebels had killed, wounded or kidnapped several Iranians Saturday evening in attacks on two villages near the border with Iraq.