Iranian Embassy siege

The Iranian Embassy Siege of 1980 was a siege of the Iranian embassy in London after it had been taken over by Arab separatists. The siege was ended when British special forces, the Special Air Service (SAS), stormed the building in Operation Nimrod. The incident brought the SAS to the world's attention as the whole episode was played out in front of the media.

Embassy capture

At 11:30 on 30 April 1980 a six-man team calling itself the Democratic Revolutionary Movement for the Liberation of Arabistan (DRMLA), captured the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Prince's Gate, South Kensington in central London.

Initially their demands were for the autonomy of an Arab-majority petroleum-rich region in southern Iran known as Khuzestan (the Arabistan of the group's name); later they demanded the release of ninety-one of their comrades, alleged political prisoners of the Iranian government, held in jails in Iran.

When the men first stormed the building, twenty-six hostages were taken (including PC Trevor Lock, the police constable on official protection duty at the main entrance, and two visiting BBC personnel - journalist Chris Cramer and sound recordist Sim Harris - who had stopped by to pick up visas), but five were released over the following few days. Police negotiators attempted to mollify the radicals with supplies of food and cigarettes, and on the third day a statement by the group was broadcast on the BBC following threats to kill a hostage. The unit's Iraqi handler had promised the group that the Jordanian ambassador would intervene to provide safe passage, but when it became clear this was not going to happen, the situation in the embassy deteriorated.

On the sixth day of the siege the group killed a hostage, press attaché Abbas Lavasani, and threw his body outside. This marked an escalation of the situation and prompted Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's decision to proceed with the rescue operation. The order to deploy a unit of the Counter Revolutionary Warfare (CRW) wing of the SAS had been given in the first few hours of the siege. At the time B Squadron were currently on CRW duty. When the first hostage was shot, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, David McNee passed a note signed by Margaret Thatcher to the Ministry of Defence, stating this was now a "military operation".

Media contingents had been camped outside the SAS barracks Stirling Lines in Hereford since the siege began. However the CRW team had been off base at a training exercise and remained in the field until called upon. Thus the media were unable to follow the SAS to the embassy.

However news teams were camped outside the embassy. A unit from the British news organisation ITN, using recently-introduced ENG camera equipment, managed to establish a viewpoint at the rear of the embassy. It was images from this vantage point that showed the SAS raid on the building live on television after their correspondent had been 'tipped off'. However the SAS insisted on a short time-delay between the live events and their broadcast in case the terrorists were watching the broadcasts.

SAS assault

In preparation for storming the building, the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR) had various contacts including the Ministry of Transport and requested that aircraft taking off and landing from Heathrow Airport were told to reduce altitude and fly lower over the embassy and British Gas began noisy drilling in an adjoining street to provide noise cover as the SAS moved into position. Detailed architectural plans were obtained of the building, which added to by the freed hostages and a detailed briefing from the caretaker (who revealed that the first two floors had bullet-proof glass installed, hence the use of explosive devices in the assault); plus a night time reconnaissance from their forward base at No.14 next door, which revealed a skylight in a top floor bathroom, and panoramic skylight on the second roof floor.

Prior to the attack the terrorists and hostages had been observed through fibre-optic probes that had been inserted through the shared wall of an adjoining building. Microphones were used to eavesdrop from the building next door. The raid had been rehearsed in a mock-up of the building in a nearby British army barracks in central London.

If hostages were executed the SAS would initiate an Immediate Action (IA) in SAS parlance, and immediately assault the embassy before further harm came to the hostages. However, the Immediate Action would be carried out with limited intelligence and is extremely risky. It was better to gather as much intelligence on the situation and have time to plan to assault the embassy. This was eventually agreed and the plan consisted of five four-man teams (the hostages were located on the second floor, separated with men at the front, women at the rear of the building) :

• One team to the rear, entry via the first floor, entry from No.14's balcony - as seen by BBC cameras
• One team through the second floor panoramic skylight to the stairwell, via abseiling
• One team through the second floor front balcony, via abseilling
• One team through the first floor door, clearing the basement
• One team through the first floor door, clearing the first floor

The assault started at 19:23 hours on 5 May 1980 (a Bank Holiday Monday) at the rear of the building with the detonation of an explosive charge above the skylight on the second floor shattering the glass and stunning any terrorist located on the second floor stairwell, 23 minutes after the dead hostage had been thrown from the building. Simultaneously, electrical power was cut to the building. Stun grenades were used to disorient the terrorists during the attack and the SAS troopers were armed with Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns.

Five of the six terrorists were killed and nineteen hostages were saved. One of the terrorists was shot on the embassy staircase as the SAS were evacuating the building. This terrorist was pretending to be a hostage when one of the SAS soldiers noticed a hand grenade in his hand and opened fire, killing the terrorist. One hostage was killed by a terrorist during the attack. One of the SAS men, Fijian Staff Sergeant "Tak" Takavesi, became tangled in his abseiling gear on his entry to the building. Before he could be cut free, a fire started by a stun grenade and fuelled by the curtains on the windows reached the sergeant, and he suffered minor burns. However, Takavesi carried on with the operation despite his injuries.

After the assault ended, the last surviving gunman, Fowzi Nejad, posed as a hostage and was escorted outside the embassy. There he was quickly identified as a gunman by a real hostage. One SAS soldier was about to take him back into the building to be shot, however, the soldier was prevented from doing so when it was pointed out that the world's media were watching.

Aftermath

There was some controversy over the killing of a few of the terrorists, especially Shai and Makki. They were guarding the Iranian hostages, and towards the end of the raid the hostages persuaded the men to surrender. Hostages witnessed them throw down their weapons and sit on the floor with their hands on their heads. Weapons being thrown out of a window and a white flag were seen by video cameras outside.

Dadgar, a hostage at the time (confirmed by two other hostages) said (of the SAS):

"They then took the two terrorists, pushed them against the wall and shot them. They wanted to finish their story. That was their job." ...[they might have] "had something in their pockets but certainly had no weapons in their hands at the time."

At a coroner's inquest the SAS were cleared of any unlawful conduct by a jury. One of the soldiers said that he thought Makki was going for a gun, and another said he thought Shai had a grenade and shot him in the back of the neck.

Margaret Thatcher and her husband Denis paid a visit to the SAS at Regent's Park barracks after the incident to thank them. "Tom", one of the SAS soldiers present, said of a later meeting with Denis Thatcher:

"He had a big grin on his face and said, 'You let one of the bastards live.' We failed in that respect."

Surviving terrorist

Fowzi Nejad was convicted for his part in the siege, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He became eligible for parole in 2005. There was speculation as to whether Britain would deport him to Iran on his release or not, where he may have faced torture or execution, or be forced to grant him political asylum. PC Trevor Lock, on guard at the embassy when it was taken, condemned this, but one of the hostages, Dadgar, told the BBC:

"I personally forgive him, yes. I think he has been punished – fair enough."

Nejad was freed in November 2008 and was not deported to Iran. Instead, he went into hiding with government support.

See also

• List of hostage crises
• Who Dares Wins

External links

• Siege at the Iranian Embassy (BBC News)
• BBC On this Day: 5th May 1980
• Six days that shook Britain by Peter Taylor, The Guardian, July 24, 2002
• Aerial View of Iranian Embassy at Google Maps

Sources

• BBC documentary "SAS Embassy Siege", directed by Bruce Goodison, produced by Louise Norman (Best Historical Documentary, Grierson Awards 2003).
• The 1982 movie Who Dares Wins was based on this incident.
• Michael Asher "The Regiment: The Real Story of the SAS", Penguin/Viking (2007)