GULF WAR FLARE-UP

THE RECENT MILITARY flare-up in the war between Iraq and Iran seems, on the face of it, to have been to Iran's advantage. But both sides, in their official communiques, claim successes and give conflicting accounts of the number of casualties caused and material damage inflicted. The official communiques of warring countries are rarely wholly reliable and the figures released are unlikely to be accurate. The respective communiques, however, reflect the sharply increased scale of the fighting.