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UK: SAS accused of murdering Iranian hostages

01 August 2002

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The widely held belief that members of the SAS executed hostages during the Iranian embassy siege in 1980 received further support in July when a BBC2 television programme, SAS - Embassy Siege in London interviewed former soldiers and hostages who were witness to the events as they unfolded. The embassy was seized, and hostages held for a week, by a previously unknown organisation called the Group of the Martyr in May 1980. According to one of the survivors, embassy staff member Ahmad Dadgar, the SAS shot two of the gunmen after they had surrendered. He said: "Both were sitting there and put their hands on their head. Then several SAS men came in. They took the two terrorists and pushed them on the wall and shot them." Dadgar's account was verified by other sources. The programme also heard that assassination had been effectively sanctioned by then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. She told the SAS team that "that she did not want on ongoing problem. She didn't want there to be a problem beyond the embassy". An inquest into the events found that the soldiers had used reasonable force

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