Britons bask in glow of embassy siege success

Press, 8 May 1980, Page 8

Britons bask in glow of embassy siege success

NZPA-Reuter London: British national pride ran high yesterday as saturation! media coverage of the Ira-; nian Embassy drama brought more details of the commando operation that ended the six-day siege with the freeingi of 19 hostages. “The restice operation has made us all proud to be I British,” the Prime Minister (Mrs Margaret Thatcher) told Parliament as messages of relief and congratulations arrived from around the world. That remark gave several newspapers their front-page headline yesterday morning for reports on how the i troops stormed into the embassy, using explosives and stun grenades, and managed to rescue all the captives. “The specific qualities which produced this almost incredible success were very much those on which the British people would want to congratulate themsglves in the days before national pride was given a bad name,” the “Daily Telegraph” said, in an editorial. There was also expectation the. British handling of the crisis would provide a shot in the arm for efforts to gain the release of 50 Americans held hostage in Tran since last November. “I think we had best consider how we can turn this

tsuperb operation to the best I [advantage for the American! hostages,” Mrs Thatcher said I 'in Parliament. ■ j ; A Foreign Affairs Minister; of State, Douglas Hurd, said in a radio interview he hoped Iran would realise international regulations on diplomats and embassies were an essential part of civilisation and, once they got broken, Iranians as well as other people could be in danger and get hurt. In Washington, President [Carter spoke of the difference in “the responsibility assumed by the British Government in protecting the embassy of Iran, compared [with the Iranian condoning of the terrorist attack on our embassy.” The British Government is certain to try to use its heightened prestige in Teheran to press home the point to Iranian authorities. Newspaper editorials yesterday also said the tough British action against the gunmen who seized the embassy should, at the very least, have a powerful deterrent effect. Firemen yesterday removed tnree bodies from the burnt-out remains of the embassy. The corpses, wrapped in dark green body bags, were , lowered from the second ; floor front windows of the building in Princes Gate. Ken- i

l sington, and taken away in a • hearse. ! Firemen used a turntable (ladder to reach the window land stood on a precariously erected scaffolding platform. A policemen manning the cordoned-off area outside the building said: “We are not sure exactly who these men are, but we believe they, may be the gunmen.” Fifteen minutes later a third body bag was removed from the second floor embassy windows. Its shape was unrecognisable as a body, but the firemen loaded it alongside the two other corpses already placed in a hearse. The man who headed the police operation. Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Dellow, revealed yesterday that towards , the end of the siege the gunmen’s only demand was for safe conduct out of the country. When this was refused the shooting inside the embassy began and hopes of a peaceful end to the siege vanished. He told a press conference that electronic eavesdropping bugs placed round the embassy had relayed quarrels between the. gunmen. Most of the surviving captives were still in police custody being interrogated by experts trying to establish the identity of the gunmen. The police are also still trying to find out how the

i'gunmen entered Britain ‘and where they acquired their arms, including automatic (guns and grenades. | The “Daily Mail” reported that the police believed the gunmen were supplied with arms after they arrived in Britain by Arab diplomats who had the weapons smugg-i led into the country in dip-; lomatic bags, which are not [searched by customs. j The “Dai!j- Mail” report said two embassies had; come under strong suspicion: “that of the Iraqis, who have; become desperate enemies of* the Iranian regime in recent? months, and that of the Lib-' vans, who are known to be arms suppliers for terrorist movements world wide.” The paper said: “Two years ago, after a series of shootings in London, the Foreign Office expelled 11 Iraqis, including five diplomats, on security grounds which included bringing weapons into Britain through diplomatic bags.’.’ ■, The report said that Sir Antony Acland, Deputy Under-Secretary of State, had _ undertaken a special mission carrying a warning to Libya that Britain would not tolerate violence being brought to the streets of London by Arab gunmen. Two Libyans.