SAS legend who rescued hostages in 1980 Iranian Embassy siege dies age 71 after cancer battle
A SAS hero who rescued hostages in the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege has died aged 71 after a battle with cancer. Tom MacDonald was a key member of the elite special forces team drafted in after the building in Kensington, West London, was stormed by six gunmen. Glasgow-born MacDonald led the group during the 17-minute […]
A SAS hero who rescued hostages in the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege has died aged 71 after a battle with cancer.
Tom MacDonald was a key member of the elite special forces team drafted in after the building in Kensington, West London, was stormed by six gunmen.
Glasgow-born MacDonald led the group during the 17-minute raid as they burst in to rescue hostages following a six-day siege.
The hero and dad-of-three, who retired to Oamaru in New Zealand’s South Island, tragically passed away on December 30.
MacDonald was in the Territorial Army before joining the Parachute Regiment and later the SAS in the mid-1960s.
EMBASSY SIEGE
On April 30, 1980, six Iranian men forced their way into the embassy at Princes Gate, London – taking 26 people hostage including a diplomatic protection officer and a team of BBC journalists.
The ruthless terrorists were from the group the Democratic Revolutionary Front for Arabistan who opposed the Iranian regime led by Ayatollah Khomeini who had seized power in the 1979 revolution.
They demanded the release of 91 political prisoners in Iran and also wanted a plane to escape the UK with the hostages.
The SAS, who had been carefully formulating a plan to raid the building, were then called into action by PM Margaret Thatcher.
SAS RESCUE MISSION
Operation Nimrod involved the building being stormed from all sides including the roof – shooting dead all but one of the terrorists.
Infamous pictures show the SAS troops abseiling through the windows of the embassy.
A total of 19 hostages were rescued during the mission while five terrorists were shot and killed.
The sixth – Fowzi Nejad – was captured after pretending to be a hostage. He was jailed for life at the Old Bailey for conspiracy to murder, false imprisonment and two charges of manslaughter.
After his release in 2008, British authorities ruled they could not deport him to Iran because it would breach the Human Rights Act.
‘IT LASTED JUST MINUTES’
At the time of the raid, MacDonald was working as a sniper commander in an SAS anti-terrorist team.
He was awarded the the Queen’s Gallantry Medal for his part in the operation and later had a beer with Margaret Thatcher and her husband Denis after the hostages were rescued.
Recalling the operation nine months ago, MacDonald said: “The whole thing lasted minutes. When we went into the embassy it was on five floors. My snipers were meant to contain the first floor, where I was, and the fifth floor, and the assault team were to take the middle three floors.
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“It turned out that a couple of the terrorists had come down to the floor that I went in on.
“It was me that jumped the balcony and went in through the window, myself and another three.
“We found the terrorists in there and dealt with them, so within 30 seconds I had gone through a window and killed two people, which wasn’t really expected.”
