Skipper Defends Downing of Jet : Khomeini Asks All-Out War Against U.S.

Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called Monday for an all-out war against the United States in retaliation for the shooting down of an Iranian airliner in the Persian Gulf by an American warship.

“We should all rush to the front for a fully fledged war against America and its surrogates,” the 88-year-old Iranian leader said in a statement monitored here. “Any doubts today amount to a betrayal of Islam.

“I donate my worthless life for the sake of our victory,” Khomeini added.

‘Criminals, Murderers’

Other Iranian leaders called the Reagan Administration “criminals and murderers” and said the country would take revenge against the United States for shooting down the Iranian passenger plane, which had 290 people aboard.

Iranians marked a special day of mourning throughout the country as rescue teams pulled a total of 168 bodies out of the waters of the Persian Gulf, where the A-300 Airbus was shot down Sunday while on a flight to this emirate capital from Bandar Abbas in southern Iran.

The Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, who has been named eventual successor to Khomeini as Iran’s spiritual guide, said in a message broadcast by Tehran Radio and monitored in Cyprus that the government should draw up plans to fight the United States on the political, as well as economic and social, fronts.

“I am confident that if the honorable leadership of the revolution so orders, revolutionary forces and resistance cells inside and outside the country would target America’s political and military interests,” Montazeri said in a message to Khomeini.

“In that case, the Muslim world will rise up and become a fire that would burn America and its agents in the region,” Montazeri said.

Khomeini’s strong statement was made in reply to to Montazeri’s message, and Khomeini’s statement was tempered with a call on Iranians to support Hashemi Rafsanjani, the Speaker of Parliament whom Khomeini named acting military commander in chief last month. Thus Khomeini’s remarks also appeared to be a call for radicals in the government to obey the more moderate leadership of the military.

Anti-American Feeling

Iran’s calls for revenge came amid a visible rise of anti-American feeling in the gulf region in the the wake of Sunday’s incident, and there was also speculation among diplomats that political pressure stemming from the affair could trigger calls for the United States to reduce its naval force in the area.

“People don’t generally believe Americans wanted to down an Iranian civil aircraft, but they find it incredible that they made such a blunder,” a long-time Dubai resident said in summing up the mood here.

In Dubai, an ancient trading and smuggling center, feelings are running especially high.

Roughly 15% of Dubai’s 450,000 population are Iranian, and many had relatives aboard the downed airliner.

One man lost his wife, nine sons and only daughter, while a senior police officer here reportedly lost his father, mother and four brothers.

Reading From Holy Book

At a memorial service conducted at the Shia Muslim mosque here, an estimated 200 Iranians shouted “Down With America!” Others wept quietly or talked in small groups and read from the Muslim holy book, the Koran.

Addressing the mourners, Khomeini’s permanent personal representative here, Sayed Razi Borgahai, vowed revenge, declaring, “We will retaliate against the United States military, political and economic interests.”

At Iran’s consulate here and at its embassy in Abu Dhabi, the Emirates’ overall capital to the southwest, the Iranian flag flew at half staff, accompanied by a black banner of mourning.

Dubai’s busy international airport, the destination of the downed airliner, was quiet Monday, 24 hours after hysterical relatives had screamed denunciations of the United States after learning of the disaster.

Flight Operations Routine

Local officials said six airlines, including Pan American and Japan Airlines, had decided to temporarily stop flying over this area. However, flight operations appeared routine at the airport early today.

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati told United Nations Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar that the U.S. ship fired deliberately at the airliner, and he called for an international investigation into the attack.

Iran closed the airspace over its portion of the gulf to airline traffic, but no unusual Iranian military activity was reported in the area.

Iran’s President Ali Khamenei joined the chorus of officials denouncing the United States and calling for revenge.

“In the name of the Iranian nation, I declare the person of Reagan and the American government as criminals and murderers,” Khamenei said.

‘Blood-Spattered Sky’

In a commentary, Tehran Radio said the “blood unlawfully shed on the disaster of July 3, 1988, will be avenged in the same blood-spattered sky over the Persian Gulf.”

“Our country is ready for martyrdom,” the commentary vowed.

The broadcast, monitored in Cyprus, also said that 38 foreigners lost their lives in the incident, including the Pakistani military attache in Tehran and his family. The dead numbered 156 men, 52 women, 66 children under 12 years and 16 crew members, according to the official Iranian news agency.

Iranian divers were reportedly searching at depths of up to 100 feet where the jetliner crashed into the sea in an effort to retrieve fragments of the weapon that shot it down.

Propaganda Campaign

Iran’s diplomatic missions abroad mounted a massive propaganda campaign against the United States and its naval presence in the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s charge d’affaires in London, Mohammed Basti, rejected the U.S. explanation that the tragedy was an accident and said it was a “deliberate act of massacre.”

Basti said the U.S. Navy should court-martial the commanding officer of the Vincennes.

In Abu Dhabi, Iran’s Ambassador Mustafa Foumeni Haeri said, “Iran has a right to retaliate and revenge at the proper time.”

Persian Gulf shipping agents reported sharply reduced tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz after the attack, with some operators fearing possible further action.

“This isn’t the time to take extra risks in an already very risky job,” one Dubai shipping agent declared.

Marshall reported from Dubai and Wallace from Nicosia, Cyprus.