The Iranian Embassy siege took place from 30 April to 5 May
1980, after a group of six armed men stormed the
Iranian embassy in
South Kensington,
London. The gunmen took 26 people hostage—mostly embassy staff, but several visitors and a police officer, who had been guarding the embassy, were also held. The hostage-takers, members of an
Iranian Arab group campaigning for
Arab national sovereignty in the southern region of
Khūzestān Province, demanded the release of Arab prisoners from jails in
Khūzestān and their own safe passage out of the
United Kingdom.
The
British government quickly resolved that safe passage would not be granted, and a siege ensued. Over the following days, police negotiators secured the release of five hostages in exchange for minor concessions, such as the broadcasting of the hostage-takers' demands on
British television.
By the sixth day of the siege the gunmen had become increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress in meeting their demands. That evening, they killed one of the hostages and threw his body out of the embassy. As a result, the British government ordered the
Special Air Service (
SAS), a special forces regiment of the
British Army, to conduct an assault to rescue the remaining hostages. Shortly afterwards, soldiers abseiled from the roof of the building and forced entry through the windows. During the 17-minute raid, the SAS rescued all but one of the remaining hostages, and killed five of the six terrorists. The soldiers subsequently faced accusations that they unnecessarily killed two of the terrorists, but an inquest into the deaths eventually cleared the SAS of any wrongdoing. The remaining terrorist was prosecuted and served 27 years in
British prisons.
The hostage-takers and their cause were largely forgotten after the
Iran–Iraq War broke out later in 1980 and the hostage crisis in
Tehran continued until
January 1981. However, the operation brought the SAS to the public eye for the first time and bolstered the reputation of
Margaret Thatcher, the
Prime Minister.
The SAS was quickly overwhelmed by the number of applications it received from people inspired by the operation and, at the same time, experienced greater demand for its expertise from foreign governments. It was not until
1993 that 16
Princes Gate, having suffered major damage from a fire that broke out during the assault, was reopened as the Iranian embassy.
- published: 05 Sep 2014
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