Operation Nimble Archer

1987 U. S. naval attack on Iranian oil platforms during the Iran Iraq War

Operation Nimble Archer was the 19 October 1987 attack on two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf by United States Navy forces. The attack was a response to Iran's missile attack on MV Sea Isle City, a reflagged Kuwaiti oil tanker at anchor off Kuwait, which had occurred three days earlier. The action occurred during Operation Earnest Will, the effort to protect Kuwaiti shipping amid the Iran–Iraq War. Iran subsequently filed a lawsuit against the United States for reparations at the International Court of Justice. The Court ruled, by 14 votes to two, that the retaliatory attacks by the U. S. Navy against certain Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf in 1987 and 1988 constituted an unlawful use of force but did not violate 1955 Treaty of Amity.

On 16 October, Sea Isle City was in Kuwaiti waters, waiting to be loaded. It had been escorted there by U. S. warships, but was not under their protection at the time. An Iranian Silkworm missile launched from the Iranian occupied Al Faw Peninsula hit the ship's wheel house and crew quarters, blinding its master, a U. S. citizen, and wounding 18 crew members. The damage to the ship would take four months to repair. In retaliation, U. S. officials decided to attack two platforms in the Rashadat oil field, named Rostam oil field before 1979. Having been damaged by Iraq a year earlier, the platforms were not producing oil but had been used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps for military purposes. Twenty minutes before the surface action group opened fire, Thach radioed the platforms, telling the crews to abandon them. At 2 pm, four U. S. destroyers opened fire: Hoel, Leftwich, Kidd, and John Young. U. S. President Ronald Reagan called the operation "an appropriate and proportionate response" to the Silkworm strike. When asked by reporters if the situation constituted a state of war, Reagan replied: "No, we're not going to have a war with Iran: they're not that stupid." regarding freedom of commerce between the territories of the parties, and that, accordingly, the claim of the Islamic Republic of Iran for reparation also cannot be upheld".