Obituary:John McAleese
Daily Telegraph / Daily Telegraph
28-Aug-2011 (one comment)

John McAleese, who died on August 26 aged 61, led the SAS team that ended the Iranian embassy siege in central London in 1980, an event watched live on television by millions of spellbound viewers.

The embassy, at 16 Princes Gate, Knightsbridge, had been taken over on April 30 1980 by six separatists from the oil-rich region in west Iran known as Arabistan. For six days, armed with machine guns, pistols and grenades, they held 26 people hostage as they demanded international recognition for their demands for independence.

Margaret Thatcher’s government was adamant that it would not make deals with terrorists, and as tense negotiations with the separatists continued, police surrounded the 56-room, five-storey building.

At the same time, an SAS team was assembled to launch a possible assault on the embassy under the code name Operation Nimrod.

Some 60 troops of 22 Special Air Service Regiment 56, among them then Lance-Corporal John McAleese, drove from their base in Herefordshire. They were equipped with ladders, climbing ropes and battering rams, as well as with machine guns, grenades and gas-canister launchers.

A few doors along from the embassy, the Royal School of Needlework was meticulously examined by one of the SAS soldiers, Stuart MacVicar (known as “Squash Ball” for his compact physique), because its layout was identical to... >>>

Simorgh5555

SAS IR Embassy siege commander dies

by Simorgh5555 on Sun Aug 28, 2011 01:22 PM PDT

This was the first attack by anti-Iran Khuzestani (not Arabestan) separatists in 1980. So ethnic tensions do not exist and who helped the Arab Separatist hostage takers to attack the embassy? Was Israel to blame for stirring ip anti-Iran hatred in 1980? Hah! 


Balatarin
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