Iraqi border war diverts Iran from hostage issue

Iran's parliament postponed forming a special hostage commission because of the intensifying border war with Iraq. After a highly charged three- hour debate among deputies about the history of the hostage crisis, Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Rajai and senior Army officers filed into the chamber to present a report on the worsening relations with Iraq, which Wednesday canceled a 1975 agreement with Iran on the vital Shatt al Arab border estuary.

Meanwhile, a military spokesman in Baghdad, quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency, said an Iranian plane was shot down, an antitank emplacement destroyed and two Iranian tanks knocked out during fighting.