Fiery assault frees hostages

Press, 7 May 1980, Page 1

Fiery assault frees hostages

NZPA London The Iranian Embassy in London, once a graceful nineteenth-century mansion, _ yesterday stood a smoking ruin after a commando assault which ended- a six-day siege in gunfire, explosions, and flames., Policemen and troons of Britain’s crack Special Air Service regiment stormed the building on Monday night, rescuing 16 Iranian and three British hostages and killing four of the captors after days of negotiations and intensive diplomatic efforts had failed to resolve the situation. All the hostages, 14 men and five women, still alive when the troops went in were saved and one of the gunmen was captured to stand trial. The police said two Iranians were in a serious condition in hospital with gunshot wounds. Two S.A.S. teams are believed to have taken part in the operation, starting their assault by hurling stun grenades through windows.

The “New York Times” said that just before 7.30 p.m. two thunderous ex-, plosions had rocked the embassy and the building had burst into flame amid volleys of machine-gun and rifle fire. It had not been immediately clear which side had set off the explosives in the ambassador’s office on the second floor and the British authorities had declined to say. There was speculation that one of the blasts may have been caused by a terrorist hand-grenade going off. The British press said commandos had been stationed on the embassy roof. They had lowered themselves by ropes to the embassy basement and had even broken down the walls of adjoining buildings to get at the embassy from the sides.

The “Daily Mail” said that police electronics experts had planted highly sensitive microphones against the embassy walls so that the police could establish where the hostages were being held. The “Daily Express’’ said that when the commandos had raided the building one of the terrorists had aimed an automatic rifle at the head of a British hostage. Police Constable Trevor Lock. But Constable Lock had grabbed the legs of the gunman and had forced him to the floor, where the two men had fought. Then a British commando, had killed the terrorist with a burst of machinegun fire. Some’ reports said that Constable Lock had dived at the terrorists as the commando had burst through a window in a

shower of glass. The soldier had become entangled in his rope and had been unable immediately to aim his gun at the terrorist facing him. Constable Lock had been bundled into the embassy when the gunmen took it over last Wednesday. After his release, another British hostage, Mr Sim Harris, a British Broadcasting Corporation soundman, turned to reporters with, a smile and punched the air with his fist in a salute. “It’s a victory, lads,” he yelled. Mr Harris had been trapped while applying for an Iranian visa when the embassy was taken over. The third British hostage was Mr Ronald Morris, a clerk at the embassy. The police said the assault had been approved by. the Government after the gunmen had executed two hostages, hurling one body into the street, and had threatened to kill a captive e' r ery Ifalf-hour unless their demands were met. One of the dead was identified by the Iranian Consulate as the embassy’s press counsellor, Mr Abbas Lavasni, aged 25, The body of the other, as yet unidentified, hostage was believed by the police to be inside the embassy, which was still smouldering yesterday after a fierce fire which followed the assault. The British Prime Minister (Mrs Thatcher) later visited the S.A.S. assault troops, said by police sources to have been

drawn from British forces in Northern Ireland and West Germany, to congratulate them “not only on behalf of Britain, but also the rest of the world.” The Home Secretary (Mr William Whitelaw) who gave official approval for the attack, said, “The operation showed that we in Britain . are not prepared to tolerate terrorism in our capital city.” The Foreign Secretary (Lord Carrington) whose officials had been involved in mediation negotiations with the ambassadors of Syria, Kuwait, and Jordan almost up to the minute the assault had taken place, said in Washington that he hoped the assault would be a deterrent. “to all those who are prepared to use this kind of action (hostage-taking).” ’ The siege began when the five gunmen, describ 7 ing themselves as Arabs from the oil-rich Khuzestan region of southern Iran, took over the embassy at 11.30 a.m. on Wednesday. Scotland Yard experts in psychological tech- 1 ■ niques handled negotiations and believed they were gaining the upper .hand when- at least three deadlines set by the guerrillas for killing their captives passed uneventfully. Talks were frequently described as cordial and the gunmen as flexible. Five hostages were freed harmed.Then, after more than 120 hours, things began to go wrong on Monday afternoon. There was an unexplained change of mood by the gunmen, with a Scotland Yard spokes-

man saying, “They became irritable, tense, and tired.” The spokesman, speaking to reporters after the assault, gave the following sequence of events: Early in the afternoon the police heard two or three shots from inside the building. At 6 p.m. the Scotland Yard chief, Sir David McNee, made a personal written appeal to the guerrillas. “It is not our way in Britain to resort to violence against those who are peaceful," he said. “You have nothing to fear from my officers providing you do not harm those in your care. • “I firmly hope that we can now bring this incident to a close peacefully and calmly.” The appeal was made before the police knew for certain whether anyone had been killed in the shooting. The gunmen did , not reply. Then' shortly before ■7. p.m.- a further three shots were heard and the body of a hostage.. was pushed ,out of the embassy- - .. .- r Policemen in - contact with the guerrillas over a field telephone were then told that further captives would be killed every 30 minutes. “It was then decided to commit the "5.A.5.,” said .the spokesman. Policemen guarded by marksmen crouching behind trees and parked vehicles on the street carried the body of the dead hostage away on a stretcher. A short time later two explosions rocked the embassy and it burst into flames as

policemen and S.A.S. troops stormed the embassy. Police sources said the S.A.S., specially trained for such operations, had deployed between 30 and 40 men in the assault from the front, back, and roof of the building. In a bizarre sideshow to the assault, demonstrators and counter-demonstrators continued to chant slogans only a few hundred metres . down the road outside the Royal Albert Hall. The police had allowed about 50 supporters of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny to join the handful who had maintained a constant vigil at the barricades. The demonstrators then stepped up their fanatical chanting and started to break through the barriers. Policemen threw off their helmets and gave chase, bringing them down with rugby tackles. Meanwhile, behind the railings of Kensington Gardens, hundreds of counter-demonstrators, including young skinheads, yelled their football chants adapted to anti-Khomeiny slogans. Dozens of policemen had to be called away from the embassy to deal with the crowds. The embassy drama' was watched live on television by millions of people throughout Britain who were off work on a bank holiday. Soon after the siege had begun the camera crews moved in and secured a vantage point a few hundred metres away in Hyde Park, where; 5m scaffolding was erected. Viewers round‘the country on Monday night watched in amazement as the body of one of the hostages was dumped outside the front entrance and the assault began. Iran grateful; hostage speaks; U.K.’s elite force, Page 8.