Tehran: A combined USAF and IDF sortie hit the former US Embassy Wednesday in an early morning strike in the Iranian capital. The former US Mission is located in the north eastern district of the capital, close to the more posh districts of the city notably Tajirish.
The embassy was the center of decades old standoff between the United States and the Newly created Islamic Republic, when the compound was seized in November 4, 1979 by the radical students who stormed the embassy and took the staff in captivity. Later the students, who renamed themselves as “students following the Imam path’ published 50+ volumes of the not shredded US mission dispatches, arranging them by specific volumes based either on the country; or on the issues within the Iranian society.
The revolutionary government initially tried to distance themselves from the radical students, but later gave in. It is pertinent to note that that many high ranking IRGC officials as well as prominent figures in the reformist camp have been part of the student body which seized the embassy, in their student/campus years. In April 1980, the Carter administration sent a rescue mission to seize the embassy from the students and take away the hostages to waiting helicopters in the nearby stadium and later to C-130s waiting in a desolate air strip in Tabas desert south of the capital. That operation ended in fiasco.
Later the embassy was converted into a museum with emphasis on the somewhat troubled history between the Islamic Republic and United States. The place is venue of student day protests against the US every year on November 4.
