The Siege

On April 30th, 1980, the Wednesday morning sun was shining brightly against the white washed walls of the Iranian Embassy in South Kensington, London.

Walking towards it, where he was to pick up a visa, John Smith wondered if the clerk processing his application would be as amused as the hotel receptionists who sniggered whenever he had booked a room for himself and his wife in that name.

John checked his watch and saw that it was 11.25, far too early for his appointment at 11.45 but with any luck the document might be ready for collection and this would save him some time enabling him to catch an earlier flight to Tehran. 

He had accepted a lucrative offer of employment in the Middle East as a consultant and, even though the situation in that region was quite tense, was looking forward to his new role.

 A British bobby stood guard outside as Iranian tourists and other visitors made their way in through the gates. John joined the throng and entered the foyer.

Five minutes later all hell broke loose when six armed gunmen overpowered the police constable and stormed the embassy.

In the mêlée that followed two women managed to flee the scene but the rest were trapped and taken hostage.

John, having served in the Special Forces, knew how to react in such a situation. He instantly recalled the bullet points learned during his training:

• Remain calm, be polite, and cooperate with your captors.
• DO NOT attempt escape unless there is an extremely good chance of survival. It is safer to be submissive and obey your captors.
• Speak normally. DO NOT complain, avoid being belligerent, and comply with all orders and instructions.
• DO NOT draw attention to yourself with sudden body movements, statements, comments, or hostile looks.
• Observe the captors and try to memorize their physical traits, voice patterns, clothing, or other details that can help provide a description later.
• Avoid getting into political or ideological discussions with your captors.
• Try to establish a relationship with your captors and get to know them. Captors are less likely to harm you if they respect you.
• If forced to present terrorist demands to authorities, either in writing or on tape, state clearly that the demands are from your captors. Avoid making a plea on your own behalf.
• Try to stay low to the ground or behind cover from windows or doors, if possible.

By and large the hostages, frightened out of their wits, behaved passively except one man who was agitated and started arguing with one of the captors but was restrained by a fellow captive.

The gunmen chose a Lebanese journalist to act as a translator to convey their demands to the negotiators. The six terrorists wanted the release of 91 political prisoners who were jailed in Khuzestan province, and a plane to fly themselves and the hostages out of Britain.

Negotiators and the translator tried to talk to the terrorists to convince them to release the innocent people but for the hostages it was going to be a six-day ordeal.

One of the hooded terrorists stepped out every day, pistol in hand, to retrieve the lunch boxes.

The authorities decided a safe passage was not to be granted, but minor concessions, such as broadcasting the terrorists’ demands had to be done to ensure the hostages’ safety.

This tactic seemed to be working as the hostage takers released first one prisoner and then another who had become ill. On the fourth day of the siege a Pakistani tourist and an Embassy secretary were allowed to regain their liberty. On the fifth day after acting as the gunmen's translator the Lebanese journalist too was let go. Everybody hoped that they would continue to release the hostages one by one. But all hope came crumbling down the very next day.

The terrorists were becoming restive and their leader threatened to blow the building up. He warned that if there was no firm news about talks with an ambassador within 30 minutes, one of the hostages would be shot.

 At noon, three shots were heard. Loud bangs followed by deafening silence.

A few hours later, more shots were fired. But still no action by the SAS.

John wondered why a rescue attempt had not been made and what was holding things up. He knew by experience that the troops would have been studying plans of the embassy building, examining blueprints and checking possible points of entry, but it seemed to be too long a delay.

It was 7:23pm on the sixth day of the siege when to everyone’s horror, a body was pushed out the door of the embassy. It was the lifeless body of that hostage who had been arguing with the captor on the first day.

Three words -  “Go, go, go” - triggered the assault that lasted only 11 minutes to clear 56 rooms on six levels of the building and rescue the hostages.

Multiple teams entered from all sides of the embassy building, going in from different floors. Groups of soldiers dressed in black overalls, balaclavas and gas masks abseiled from the roof, forcing their way through the windows.

Some threw flash bangs through the windows to stun the terrorists, others blew the first floor windows in and entered via the balcony, a few snuck into the rear garden and held the main staircase.

The terrorists were no longer in charge. Some pretended to be hostages but were quickly identified and shot. In order to identify the remaining people, the soldiers checked each hostage and let them out one by one.

‘Hello John’, said the troop’s commander, ‘don’t you regret having relinquished your commission and missing all the action?’

© Luigi Pagano 2017

Image: Steve White2008 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/25347284@N04/3354043251/in/set-
(CC BY-SA 2.0)