OPERATION NIMROD
IRANIAN EMBASSY
16 PRINCES GATE, LONDON
On the 30th April 1980, six men seized
control of the Iranian Embassy in London. After the terrorists had burst into the embassy at 16 Princes Gate, Southwest
London, they took 21 people prisoner that included 15 Iranian Embassy employees,
PC Trevor Lock and 5 visitors including BBC sound recordist, Sim Harris. For six
days the siege went on with negotiations for a peaceful solution being sought by
the Government; as they had decided not to allow the use of the army, until
there was known proof that the terrorists were executing hostages. Finally,
after the six day standoff, one of the terrorist’s patience snapped and he shot
dead one of the hostages, Abbas Lavasani, the Embassy Press
Officer.
Just before 1800 Hrs on May the 5th, Lavasani’s body was
discarded on the pavement outside the Embassy. Recordings from bugs in the
Embassy building itself proved that the terrorists were planning to execute more
hostages unless their demands were met. The time for negotiation was over. At
1858 Hrs, the Home Secretary, William Whitelaw, authorised the SAS to take
action. At 1907 Hrs the Metropolitan Police officially handed over control of
the assault to Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Rose, Commanding Officer of 22 Special
Air Service Regiment. "Operation Nimrod" was now active.
The SAS set three objectives for the operation.
Two assault teams (red and blue) had come from the
counter terrorist Pagoda squadron. The teams were commanded by Jeremy Phipps, an
SAS major. Within hours of the siege beginning, snipers had set up positions in
Hyde Park, so the teams were prepared for IA (immediate action). The Pagoda
assault teams had long been training for the inevitable assault of the embassy,
and had built and exact replica of the five floors, fifty room embassy and
established a hi-tech command post in Kingston House, which overlooked the
embassy.
By 1922 Hrs, Blue Assault team had got into position in
the gardens behind the buildings. Red team were also in position in the front
rooms of Number 15 Princes Gate. Once they were ready for the assault, they gave
the signal, ‘Hyde Park’ to communicate to the Command post they were ready.
At 1923 Hrs, the codeword ‘London Bridge went out to all teams to command them to start their attack. Red team dropped off the roof heading for the second floor balcony, and blue team rushed towards the French windows on the ground floor terrace. There was one
moment of panic when an assault NCO was stuck, whilst abseiling 15 ft above the balcony. Red team members unsuccessfully tried free him as quickly as possible.
With the operation in danger of discovery and possible failure, the SC (squadron commander) got on the radio and gave his orders ‘GO GO GO’. The operation was on; there was no stopping the SAS. Red team hit the balcony at the same time the third floor skylight was breached, and on the ground floor, blue team had to use heavy sledgehammers to gain access through the French floor windows. They were supposed to be using plastic explosive but the situation prevented this. It was deemed to risky as the NCO was still tangled up in the abseil rope.
At the front end of the embassy, other members of blue team had reached the front balcony and window and were about to detonate plastic explosive when the BBC man Sim Harris was spotted, and told to move away. Sim Harris was then removed from the room and instructed to take cover on the balcony of Number 18.
Despite the hitch ups of the assault, the terrorists were completely taken by surprise. However, they had prepared for an assault by splitting all the hostages up into groups and holding them in separate rooms. The men were in the Tele room on the second floor and the women were in the Cipher room also in the second floor.
When the diversionary PE charge exploded in the sky-light the terrorists were scattered between the first and second floors. The terrorist leader ‘Awn’ was in an office in the first floor with PC Trevor Lock. As soon as PC Lock realised the assault had started, he drew his own gun that he had kept hidden all through the siege. He tried to shoot Awn but could not bring himself to do this in cold blood. Awn immediately turned on PC Lock and a bitter fight ensued. In the next office along, blue team blew in a window and entered the building. Running into the building, and SAS assaulter broke into the room, pulled PC Lock away and shot Awn immediately.
On the floor above, red team was having difficulties. They had burst in through the second floor balcony but had round the doors in the office locked and un-openable. The room they were in was also on fire from the stun grenades used by the troopers. In the meanwhile, blue team was making their way through the library and were searching the area for terrorists. On the first floor, the gunfire had attracted the attention of terrorist ‘Abbas’ out of the ambassador’s office at the rear of the building. He was shot simultaneously by three SAS troopers. For the members of red team in the second floor, the doors out of the now blazing room were still shut although riddled with bullets.
One member of red team, Tommy Palmer lost patience and left the team. He quickly moved onto the adjoining window ledge, and identifying one of the terrorists, ‘Shai’, seeming to be trying to set the room on fire. Palmer broke the window and attempted to shoot Shai but his usually reliable HK MP5 jammed. In the meanwhile, the remaining terrorists Feisel, Ali and Makki rushed into the Telex room and started to shoot the hostages lying on the floor. They managed to kill one and critically wounded two others. As they were shooting, they were joined by Said who had come running from the office he was trying to set fire to, with Palmer in hot pursuit. The rest of red team had finally broken through the barricades, who, upon hearing gunfire from the Telex room rushed in behind Palmer and killed Shai with a single shot to the head.
This mission resulted in five dead terrorists and a sixth was discovered trying to pass himself off as a hostage, and was arrested.
The planned routes for the operation can be viewed here. Please note that this is a large file due to pictures.
BBC NEWS - IRAN AND THE HOSTAGE TAKERS
BBC NEWS - THE CULT OF THE SAS
Please note that this site is not responsible for the content of external sites.