US embassy siege: 444 days in Tehran
Updated on 04 November 2009
Thirty years ago today militant Islamic students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took more than 60 people hostage in a siege that lasted 14 months.
The students demanded that their former leader, Shah Reza Pahlavi, who fled the country during the Islamic Revolution in 1979, be extradited from the US where he was receiving medical treatment for cancer.
The militants faced little opposition to the siege and had support from the revolutionary guards and Ayatollah Rubollah Khomeini, who had assumed control of the country earlier in the year.
Within days 13 Americans were freed from the embassy but the crisis persisted for many months. America cut off all diplomatic ties and ceased trading with Iran.
In April 1980, five months into the stand-off, American President Jimmy Carter ordered a top-secret rescue mission, launching helicopters from bases in the Middle East and an American aircraft carrier in the Indian ocean.
But the mission ended in disaster when two helicopters collided in mid-air, killing eight US Marines.
The failed mission and tensions surrounding the continued siege caused increasing criticism of Carter, who was in the midst of the 1980 US presidential election campaign.
Nine months later, on 21 January 1981, the remaining 52 hostages were finally released - Carter's last day in office after losing the US election to Ronald Reagan.
Iran agreed to release the diplomats and embassy staff after the US said it would release assets frozen in banks, including the Bank of England, since the siege began.
The hostages were flown to Germany and then on to America after spending 444 days in detention.
