  We report the identification of the optical afterglow of GRB 980613 in R- and
I-band images obtained between 16 and 48 hours after the gamma-ray burst. Early
near-infrared (NIR) H and K' observations are also reported. The afterglow was
optically faint (R ~ 23) at discovery but did not exhibit an unusually rapid
decay (power-law decay slope alpha < 1.8 at 2 sigma). The optical/NIR spectral
index (beta_RH < 1.1) was consistent with the optical-to-X-ray spectral index
(beta_RX ~ 0.6), indicating a maximal reddening of the afterglow of ~0.45 mag
in R. Hence the dimness of the optical afterglow was mainly due to the fairly
flat spectral shape rather than internal reddening in the host galaxy. We also
present late-time HST/STIS images of the field in which GRB 980613 occurred,
obtained 799 days after the burst. These images show that GRB 980613 was
located close to a very compact, blue V = 26.1 object inside a complex region
consisting of star-forming knots and/or interacting galaxy fragments.
Therefore, GRB 980613 constitutes a strong case for the association of
cosmological gamma-ray bursts with star-forming regions.
