Word: attacker
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Even the Koranic protection that has always shielded Muslim holy men from attack was shattered as discipline broke down. When a mullah and his armed companion attempted to disarm several youths near the Shahyad monument in Tehran, the mullah was shot to death. Some leftist guerrillas even attacked mosques, a sacrilegious act that would have been unthinkable a few days earlier...
That force proved no match for the invaders, who were later identified by State Department experts as members of the left-wing Cherikhaye Fedaye Khalq (People's Sacrifice Guerrillas). Shortly after 10 a.m., the attackers cut loose with machine guns, pistols and automatic rifles from roof tops across the street. As the first volleys of the surprise attack hit the building, Sullivan and Colonel Leland Holland, the defense attache, took up a position at a command post in Sullivan's second-floor office. The Marine guards, clad in flak jackets and under instructions from Sullivan to refrain from...
Then, just as surprisingly as it had begun, the attack ended. Almost unnoticed by the terrified Americans, a band of commandos wearing armbands with the legend ISLAMIC ARMY entered the room and quietly took over from the attackers. "You are our brothers. Don't worry," they told the Americans, before politely frisking them, escorting them down the stairs to the compound and eventually setting them free. But the rescuers, who had been dispatched to the embassy in response to Sullivan's repeated, desperate phone calls, were not able to fend off the mob that had gathered...
Photographer Kaveh Golestan, on assignment for TIME, was at the mosque at Tehran University, where a handful of people were reluctantly complying with Khomeini's command to turn in their weapons. Suddenly two Khomeini supporters rushed in announcing: "The U.S. embassy is under attack. Let's go stop it!" A Jeep quickly filled with about ten people and at least that many weapons. Reports Golestan...
...Inter-Continental Hotel, where most of the foreign newsmen were staying, and put on a display of guerrilla derring-do. A colleague of Khomeini's chided them by saying, "You're only upsetting the reporters," but minor shootups persisted throughout the day. The leader of the attack on the hotel, a former student who said his name was "Amini," agreed that it was dangerous to have so many armed civilians in the streets. But soon, he added, "they will all run out of ammunition, and when Imam Khomeini gives the word, we will take back the guns...