SIX DAYS: THE SIEGE OF THE IRANIAN EMBASSY
- arifsyahwicaksono2
- Apr 13
- 19 min read
It was around 11:30 on April 30th in London; a Wednesday. Located in 16 Prince's Gate, South Kensington, lies the Iranian Embassy building. During that particular day, the residents of the embassy continued their work as usual when a car pulls up just outside the building. At a glance, this car looked like any other car, and it was in fact like every other car. What made it different was who the car's drivers were. Six men exited the car, armed to the teeth with submachine guns and pistols. From the car, the men rush across the street and burst into the embassy. The men fired wildly in the room, causing a great deal of chaos in the building. Present in the embassy was Police Constable Trevor Lock from the Metropolitan Police's Diplomatic Protection Group. Lock was quickly overpowered by the attackers before he was able to pull out his issued revolver. As the attackers checked him for any weapons, he successfully concealed the gun in his coat, which he refused to take off. He reasoned that wearing the coat was vital for "preserving his image" as a police officer. Prior to his capture, Lock had also managed to press the "panic button" on his radio, signalling to London authorities of the developing situation in the building. Regardless, the attackers rounded up a total number of 26 hostages from the workers, staff, and guests of the embassy.
For six days, both authorities and the hostage-takers were in a cold and tense standoff, ultimately culminating in the involvement of Britain's secret special military force, the SAS. But what were the events that led to this attack? What happened in those six days? And how was this hostage situation resolved?
BACKGROUND
The year is 1979, and Iran had underwent a turbulent revolution. The deeply unpopular government of the Pahlavi dynasty was overthrown in an Islamic revolution. Iran was now under the control of Islamic revolutionaries led by Ayatollah Khomeini. Prior to his ascension to absolute power, the Pahlavi dynasty ruled the country with an iron fist, and the oil-rich region of Khuzestan had received horrible treatment from the Iranian government. This was paetly due to the fact that Khuzestan was an Arab-majority province. Tensions subsequently rose between Persians and Arabs in the region, and a 1978 oil workers' strike helped to contribute to the downfall of the unjust Pahlavi dynasty.
So, when the Iranian Revolution swept the country a year later, many Khuzestanis supported it. They wholeheartedly believed Khomeini would be a much better ruler compared to the Shah. Unfortunately, their wishes were snatched when Khomeini's radical Islamic government was equally as corruptible and oppressive as the previous regime. Little had changed in Khuzestan as a result, and this deeply dissatisfied its citizens. Many Arabs in the province wanted Khuzestan to secede from Iran entirely. Shortly after the revolution, the Khuzestanis declared an insurgency against the newly established Iranian government. The process of crushing the insurgency was brutal; hundreds from both sides died during the event, but ultimately the Iranians prevailed and Khuzestan remained Iranian.
Despite the insurgency having been a failed attempt, it managed to inspire several groups to take matters into their own hands. The most notable group was known as the Democratic Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Arabistan, or the DRFLA for short. This group sought the creation of a Khuzestani Arab state and are engaged in militant operations against the Iranian government. The attackers of the Iranian Embassy were members of the DRFLA, led by a man named Oan Ali Mohammed. The idea of besieging the Iranian embassy came, ironically in a way, from Iran themselves; the nation's Islamic revolutionaries were conducting a siege on the much-hated US Embassy in Iran. Obviously, Oan and his men did not arrive to the heart of London without assistance. Iran's emerging rival and opponent, Saddam Hussein's Iraq, intended to annex Khuzestan for himself. To improve relations with them, Iraq began funding and supporting the DRFLA. This included aiding Oan and his men in carrying out this operation.
MEET THE TEAM: DRFLA
Oan was only 27, yet he was already in charge of an organization of such a scale. He was a native from Khuzestan, having been born there, and spent most of his life in Iran. He studied in the University of Tehran, but at some point during his youth, he became a prime target of the pre-revolutionary Iranian government, likely due to him being involved in some political activities. Oan was subsequently imprisoned and tortured by Iran's dreaded secret police, the SAVAK. Another prisoner of SAVAK was Shakir Abdullah Radhil, often called by the name Faisal. Following the formation of the DRFLA, Oan appointed him as his second-in-command. The other men participating in the siege included: Shakir Sultan Said (nicknamed Hassan), Themir Moammed Hussein (nicknamed Abbas), Fowzi Badavi Nejad (nicknamed Ali), and Makki Hanoun Ali (nicknamed Makki), the youngest of the six.
Oan and his group of rebels landed on British soil on March 31st, 1980. They had been given Iraqi passports and used them to bypass security. Entering into London proper, the men took up temporary residence within a flat in Earl's Court, West London. Weeks passed without any suspicious behavior from the group, but by April 30th, something did happen. The group told their landlord that they would stay in the Bristol for a week before returning to Iraq, and told the landlord that their flat was not rented out anymore. Oan and his group hopped into their car and left the residence completely by 9.30 AM: their true destination was the Iranian Embassy. On their way, they obtained weaponry that was concealed and smuggled through an Iraqi diplomatic bag. Now armed with all their weapons, the attack on the embassy could continue.
MEET THE TEAM: SAS
Meanwhile, there was the British Special Air Service (SAS). Founded in 1941 during World War II, the unit was first known as the "L" Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade. It was formed by Lieutenant-Colonel David Stirling and acted as an elite commando force in the North African theatre of the war, intended to infiltrate deep behind enemy lines. The unit saw its first major action during the campaigns against Axis-held Western Africa, where the soldiers were dropped by parachute. However, unfavorable weather and heavy German retaliation led to devastating losses, rendering its first mission a failure. Their second mission was not; the unit managed to destroy 60 Axis aircraft in Libya without a single loss. In 1943, Stirling was captured, leading to Lieutenant-Colonel Paddy Mayne replacing him. The unit then saw action in the Allied invasion of Italy, and was renamed into the SAS Brigade by 1944. The brigade continued their service up until the end of the war a year later.
Now that the war in Europe was over, the British government saw the SAS Brigade as unnecessary. By October 1945, the unit was disbanded. However, growing tensions in Europe and the world as a result of the Cold War and armed conflicts related to it influenced Brisith thinking. Members of the government believed the specialized SAS commando unit would be necessary in the case of a new war. By January 1947, the SAS was re-established as a permanent military unit within the British army. In the grand scheme of the Cold War, the SAS became heavily involved in numerous conflicts aound the world. It helped British infantry during the Malayan Emergency, utilizing guerilla tactics against communist insurgents; it conducted espionage against the IRA in Northern Ireland; and it helped suppress revolts in Oman. The SAS's existence remained secret to the general public, however. Their unit operated in the shadows, and only military and government circles were made aware of its existence, though that would change.
Following the disaster that is the Munich massacre in 1972, most Western European nations were compelled to form counter-terrorist units within their police force and military. The British government was concerned that they may not be prepared for a terrorist plot within their country, and subsequently oredered the SAS to form the Counter Revolutionary Warfare branch of the organization, tasked as Britain's anti-terrorist unit. The CRW assisted their West German counterparts in 1977 while dealing with militants who hijacked a plane, Lufthansa Flight 181.
DAY 1: APRIL 30TH
Now we pick up where we left off in the beginning of this entry. Oan and his DRFLA men have seized the Iranian Embassy and held PC Lock and 25 others in the building as hostages. The hostages were gathered together and held in a single room on the second floor. Many of the hostages were Iranian, mainly staff working for the embassy, though there were a few British hostages as well. Unfortunate visitors were also among them.
Following Lock's pressing of the panic button and after receiving reports of gunfire, police officers quickly poured into the scene of the crisis. Within ten minutes, seven officers – working for the Diplomatic Protection Group (DPG) branch of the police – had arrived on the scene. They initially attempted to surround the building, but they were forced to withdraw and abandon this plan after a gunman appeared at a window and threatened to fire. Arriving half an hour later, Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Dellow assumed command of the police operation. He established a makeshift base of operations in his car before moving to the Royal School of Needlework building and finally settling in a nearby nursery school in 24 Prince's Gate. Negotiations were led by Chief Superintendent Max Vernon, who managed to contact the attackers through a field telephone passed through a window. Oan's and the DRFLA's demands were voiced out by 3 PM; he demanded the release of 91 Arab prisoners held in Khuzestan, with the deadline set to noon in May 1st, the next day.
If the demands were not met by then, they would blow up the embassy building with all the hostages still inside. An hour later, however, the DRFLA released one of the hostages, a woman named Frieda Mozaffarian, who became incredibly ill at the start of the attack. Oan demanded that a doctor be sent to the embassy, but after police refused and after some convincing from the other hostages, Oan decided to release Frieda.
Like a tidal wave, crowds of journalists and reporters arrived to report on the scene. Among them were also Iranian protesters, whom were partially contained by police, though it did not stop the outbreak of some cases of violence between officers and protesters. It was quickly becoming clear that news of this hostage crisis would soon envelop the entirety of London and the entire nation soon enough. The British government was alarmed by the crisis. To address the issue, the government held an emergency meeting in the Cabinet Office Briefing Room (also known as COBRA). It was made up of a wide range of people, from civil servants to government ministers. This COBRA meeting would be chaired by Home Secretary William Whitelaw, since the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was unavailable at the time.
The COBRA attendees agreed that the crisis should still be managed by the police, but if things escalated and hostages were harmed, they could play their trump card: the SAS. COBRA agreed, however, that even if the crisis was resolved peacefully, they were not going to let Oan and his men escape Britain scot-free. Meanwhile, Iran was furious upon hearing of this attack. Tehran accused their American and British counterparts for having orchestrated the crisis as revenge for the US Embassy siege in Iran.
DAY 2: MAY 1ST
Meanwhile, miles away from London, near the city of Herefordshire, lies the SAS headquarters. The soldiers there have been training for quite some time, but no missions have arrived for them. That was until alarms started blaring in the building. They thought it would be some drill, but they soon received a message from SAS Director Peter de la Billière that simply told them this was the real thing; they were receiving a new mission. The 22 Regiment, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Rose, were subsequently dispatched onto the scene. Rose introduced himself to Dellow shortly after. The SAS were then held at a holding area in the army barracks at Regent's Park. The team was equipped with Browning Hi-Power semi-automatic pistols, MP5 submachine guns, CS gas, stun grenades, and explosives. The team moved to the building right next to the embassy and were briefed by Rose about their next course of action.
As morning dawned, the gunmen told one of the hostages to try and contact the BBC. After establishing contact, Oan took the phone and spoke to the journalist on the other end. He told the journalist that the non-Iranian hostages would not be harmed whatsoever, but denied the journalist any chance of talking with the other hostages. Meanwhile, one of the hostages, BBC sound organizer Chris Cramer, fell gravely ill. Cramer's illness coincided with the police cutting off the embassy's telephone lines, meaning the hostages and the attackers had to rely entirely on the field telephone. Sim Harris, a friend of Cramer, tried to request a doctor to the embassy, but once again the police refused. They instead urged Harris to persuade Oan to release Cramer the same way he released Frieda. The following negotiations lasted much of the morning, but Cramer was eventually released. He was quickly carried away to the hospital and was to be questioned for information by the police.
It was quickly approaching noon, and the police were convinced that the threat of blowing up the embassy was a bluff. They managed to get Oan to agree to a new deadline at 2 PM, but that would not be necessary as Oan changed his mind and made new demands. He now told the police that he wished to negotiate with ambassadors of three Arab nations to act as mediators for the DRFLA's safe passage out of Britain. Day turned to night, and Oan complained about an irritating noise coming from the Ethiopian embassy next door.
Unbeknownst to him, these noises came from MI5 technicians who had occupied the Ethiopian embassy and were drilling in listening devices into the walls, allowing authorities to eavesdrop on the attackers. PC Lock, who was in the room with Oan, convinced him that the noise came from rats. To help mask the noise, British authorities told aircraft bound for Heathrow to fly over the embassy at a low altitude.
DAY 3: MAY 2ND
In the morning of the third day, Oan appeared on the first floor window holding the Iranian cultural attaché, Abdul Fazi Ezzati, at gunpoint. He demanded that the police grant him access to the telex system of the embassy (a telex was basically an early fax machine); the polcie had cut off the telex systems when they were cutting off the telephone lines. To make his threats clear, he pushed Ezzati to the floor and threatened to kill him. Oan then demanded that he get in touch with a BBC employee who knew of Sim Harris. The police subsequently contacted BBC managing director Tony Crabb, who was Harris's boss. Oan restated his demands to Crabb, telling him to broadcast his demands to the public via the BBC. Meanwhile, Britain attempted to contact the Arab nations of Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, and Syria to ask if any of the countries wished to act as mediators. Jordan flatly refused, though the other five nations were considering it. In accordance to Oan's demands, the BBC broadcasted the DRFLA's demands, but the broadcast ended up telling the wrong information, which infuriated Oan.
Elsewhere, the caretaker of the Iranian Embassy building was brought in by the police to explain the security measures of the building to the SAS and the high-ranking police officers. The caretaker explained that the entrance to the building was strengthened by a steel security door and that the windows were reinforced with a protective and durable armored glass. Funnily enough, these security measures were suggested by the SAS themselves a few years prior. Regardless, plans of breaking through the embassy's doors and windows werw now scrapped, and alternatives were quickly reviewed.
DAY 4: MAY 3RD
The next day, Oan expressed his fury at the BBC for having falsely broadcasted his demands and goals. He accused the British government of lying to him and insisted that an Arab ambassador be put to contact. Negotiators told him that the British government was still trying to appeal to Arab nations. Tired of constant delays, Oan told negotiators that, for their deception and lies to him, the British hostages would be the last to exit the building. Tensions escalated when Oan threatened to kill a hostage unless the police contacted Crabb and send him back to the embassy.
When Crabb arrived hours later, Oan told him a new demand: Oan told Crabb to publish a statement of him in the BBC's next news bulletin, and in return he would release two hostages: the pregnant Hiyech Kanji and Ali-Guli Ghanzafar (Ghanzafar was only released due to his loud snoring, thought this was important to include). In the very late evening, the SAS conducted recon on the embassy's roof. While there, they discovered a potential entry point in the form of a skylight. They also began attaching ropes down chimneys to allow soldiers to climb down and enter the building through windows. Again, this was only to be done if the situatiom goes awry.
DAY 5: MAY 4TH
Much of the day was spent by the British government negotiating with Arab nations to participate in resolving the crisis as per Oan's demands. The talks bore no fruit, and British diplomats urged London to allow the DRFLA safe passage out of Britain regardless. They argued it was the safest way to resolve the crisis, but Thatcher's cabinet remained insistent that the attackers will not leave the country. Meanwhile, at the embassy, journalist Mustapha Karkouti had fallen ill as well. This was the third hostage to have gotten ill during the crisis, and there were theories that the police may have spiked the food sent into the embassy. Dellow had considered actually doing this, but he scrapped it as he called it impractical. The rest of the day was spent by the SAS, now accompanied by Director de Bilière, plotting their assault plans. While the release of four hostages at this point raised hopes that the crisis would be resolved peacefully, the dragging negotiations were worrying as the DRFLA could be growing impatient.
And they did.
DAY 6: MAY 5TH
As negotiations amounted to nothing after nearly a week of holding the embassy, Oan became increasingly frustrated and impatient at the authorities. Early in the morning, he woke up Lock and told him to check for an intruder in the building. Lock complied and found nobody and was later called by Oan again to examine a bulge found within the walls adjacent to the Ethiopian Embassy building. The bulge was caused by the MI5 technicians' tampering of the walls' structure to place their listening devices. It was clear that Oan had grown increasingly paranoid of an impending police attack. He gathered the male hostages and transferted them to another room down the hall.
The climax of the crisis had begun at 1 PM sharp. Oan told the police that he will kill a hostage if they do not find him an Arab ambassador within 45 minutes. The police and negotiators were on high alert. Lock contacted them via the field telephone and told them that the hostage Oan and his men were likely to kill was a man named Abbas Lavasani, a supporter of the Iranian Revolution. He had been moved downstairs and the DRFLA were preparing to kill him. When exactly 45 minutes have passed, tragedy struck as three gunshots were heard from inside the building.
The murder of Lavasani marked the beginning of the end. The SAS took control of operations from here and they began planning their assault. The attack was headed by Rose and was codenamed Operation Nimrod. The SAS team was to be divided into the Red and Blue teams.
The Red team was assigned with infiltrating the second, third, and fourth floors from the roof, while the Blue team will storm the basement, ground, and first floor. The attacks by the two teams was set to be done at the same time to maintain the element of surprise. Whitelaw arrived onto the scene and was told by de la Billière that even if the assault went smoothly, it was estimated that 40% of the hostages would die. Regardless of this harrowing fact, Whitelaw gave the green light for the attack to commence at a short notice.
The SAS were prepared to assault the embassy by 5 PM, while police negotiators attempted one final attempt at peace. They brought in the imam of the nearby Regent's Park Mosque to talk to Oan. It was no use. Oan announced to everybody at the scene that this was the final deadline; if his demands were not met within 30 minutes, he and his men would kill all of the remaining hostages. Lavasani's body was then thrown out of the building to show the seriousness of the threat.
The SAS took up positions while the police distracted Oan by stalling negotiations. The long-awaited assault was about to begin.
THE ASSAULT ON THE EMBASSY
The sixth day of the embassy siege coincided with a national holiday throughout Britain. News cameras soon recorded footage of the SAS team moving into the building, broadcasting live onto television. Many people across the nation eagerly watched the rescue operation taking place. Meanwhile, snipers set up positions on buildings outside the embassy, all pointing at it. The SAS had been prepared for this assault.
During the days leading up to this assault, they had been extensively briefed about the mission. They even created a life-sized replica of the embassy building during their training days to prepare the SAS agents for the attack. They came in with full gear, wearing a black assault suit fitted with custom body armor, their heads covered by a hood and their faces covered by gas masks. For their equipment, the soldiers were equipped with MP5 submachine guns, Browning pistols, and Remington shotguns along with G60 stun grenades.
At 7.23 PM, a code word was relayed in the radios of the soldiers. "Hyde Park" signalled the men on the roof to begin their descent via rope down the building. Another codeword, "London Bridge", was soon relayed, marking the start of Operation Nimrod. Four men from the Red Team were tasked with climbing down the side of the building and gaining an entry point by detonating explosives on the second floor window. At the same time, the other four men of Red Team on the roof would detonate a stun grenade onto the skylight to act as a diversionary explosion. Blue Team remained on the ground, awaiting to barge into the lower floors.
The explosion was subsequently set off, but there was a major problem: one of the men from Red Team who was supposed to breach the windows became tangled in his rope. His colleagues were unwilling to use explosives on the windows now in fear of injuring him. They turned to an alternative method instead. Using sledgehammers, they forcefully smash through the windows, at the cost of alerting Oan and his men of their presence. The SAS assailants throw in stun grenades and CS gas into the building, shrouding it in a mix of gases. Outside, Director de la Billière is worried that the operation would end in disaster. The teams' failure to synchronize the attack as a result of their tangled comrade put the operation in jeopardy in his eyes, but the operation continues.
As the stun grenades go off, the resulting explosion sparks a fire onto the curtain. The fire burns the leg of the stranded soldier; he was finally released after his colleagues cut his rope loose. Sergeant Tommy Palmer also has his gask mask set ablaze by the curtain fire, though despite the incident, both he and the entangled soldier evaded any serious injuries. Ditching his gas mask even though the building was covered in all sorts of gases, he continued to lead his four-man team into the building, entering through the shattered windows. As the SAS men enter, they spot their first enemy: one of the DRFLA terrorists was dousing kerosene on the carpet. Palmer points his MP5 at the terrorist, but in a stroke of bad luck, the gun jammed.
The terrorist, realizing he is utterly outgunned and outnumbered either way, sprints down the hallway. He was running towards the telex room, where the male hostages were being held in. Palmer pulled out his sidearm, and before the terrorist could enter the telex room, was shot dead with a single headshot by Palmer.
Meanwhile, inside the telex room, three other terrorists were guarding the hostages and obviously heard the commotion outside. Knowing their time is up, the terrorists begin shooting the hostages wildly. The resulting slaughter kills one man – Ali Akbar Samadzadeh – and injures two others. When the SAS agents burst into the room, the terrorists have managed to hide themselves among the hostages. As they scan the room, one of the terrorists reveal themselves and tried to detonate a grenade. He was shot dead shortly after the failed attempt. Another of the terrorists tried to do the same, but he met a similar fate to his friend. Believing they had killed all the terrorists in the room, the SAS agents begin evacuating the hostages out of the telex room. Unbeknownst to them, the third terrorist was still disguising himself among the hostages.
Slightly lagging behind, Blue Team storms into the building via the first floor balcony. They detonate explosives onto the reinforced windows. Stun grenades were then thrown into the building, greatly startling an unharmed Sim Harris, who was forced to take cover from the explosives. Blue Team secured him and continued searching through the floor, eventually entering the adjacent room where they witness a brutal struggle.
PC Lock was engaged in a fight with Oan, with Lock preventing him from harming the SAS agents. He finally revealed the revolver he had hidden in his jacket for so long, but it was no use as Oan gained the upper hand. Just as Lock was about to be killed by Oan, one of the SAS agents shoved the terrorist leader aside, away from Lock. Another soldier aims his MP5 at Oan, and fires a quick burst of bullets onto the man. With that, Oan was dead.
Harris and Lock were subsequently escorted out of the building, and the scene of Harris being evacuated out was broadcasted to live television. As the first floor was secured, the rest of Blue Team barge into the ground floor, finding it clear of any terrorists. The team leader leads his men down to the cellar, where he instinctively unloaded his entire magazine onto a dustbin in the corner, having mistook it for a crouching figure.
After some brief searching, Red Team discovers where the female hostages were held. Thankfully, none of them were found harmed. Rounding up all the surviving hostages, the SAS agents begin to lead them outside of the embassy building. As they were overseeing the evacuation, however, one of the soldiers recognized one of the terrorists hidden amongst the line of hostages; he had a grenade in his hand. The soldier was unwilling to shoot at the terrorist in fear of injuring innocents or his comrades, so he pushed the terrorist down the stairs. Two other soldiers at the foot of the stairs proceed to unleash a hailstorm of bullets onto the terrorist, killing him for good. All the hostages were taken into the back garden of the embassy, being kept restrained on the ground as authorities identify each one of them. Harris spotted an outlier among the hostages. The last terrorist, Fowzi Badavi Nejad, was still hiding amongst them. He was quickly identified by Harris and was taken prisoner by British authorities. He would later be sentenced to life in prison.
AFTERMATH OF THE ASSAULT
The operation took 17 minutes to accomplish, and it was a massive success. Out of the 26 hostages held in the embassy, only two have passed away, whereas five out of six of the terrorists have been killed. For his efforts during the siege, PC Lock was awarded the George Medal, the UK's second-highest civil honor. He was considered a hero by many due to his tackling of Oan during Operation Nimrod. SAS officer Thomas Goodyear was also decorated for his part in killing the two terrorists in the telex room during the assault. Meanwhile, the officer who got tangled in his ropes and had his legs burned was treated at the hospital. When the siege concluded, all the SAS agents returned to their makeshift headquarters nearby to be debriefed. During this time, they received a surprise visit from Prime Minister Thatcher herself, who personally congratulated them for their bravery.
Since its existence, the SAS had been operating compeletely in the shadows, and while this event did reveal the organization to the public, it showed them that there was a good reason they were hidden: they were some of the best that the United Kingdom had to offer. The bravery of the SAS agents became well-known outside of the country, and soon many people would begin applying themselves to join the organization.
As for the last surviving terrorist, Fowzi, he was sentenced to life in prison shortly after his arrest in the aftermath of the siege. But the conundrum was that he could not be deported back to Iran due to European laws prohibiting the deportation of prisoners to a home country that was likely to kill or torture them. The British government granted him parole in 2008, much to the dismay of Lock and others. Fowzi has since been released after nearly three decades in prison. He has since assumed a new identity and is still living on British soil.
Comments