(Tehran) Iranian justice on Thursday ordered the United States to pay more than $400 million “to the victims” of an American operation carried out in 1980 to free American diplomats taken hostage by Iran.
On November 4, 1979, seven months after the proclamation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iranian Islamist students attacked the American embassy in Tehran and took 52 diplomats and staff hostage for 444 days.
They demanded the extradition of the ex-shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was forced to leave the country in January after months of protests and was then treated in the United States.
On April 25, 1980, American special forces carried out an operation called “Eagle Claw” in the Iranian desert with the aim of freeing the hostages.
The mission failed due to sandstorms and mechanical problems and eight American soldiers were killed.
According to the country’s justice news agency, Mizan Online, during this operation, American forces “attacked” a bus carrying Iranians, without giving further details, and not specifying whether any people on board had been killed or injured.
According to a public document from the US Department of Defense, the “forces” participating in the operation “fired” on a bus and “detained 45 Iranians”.
“Following the lawsuit filed by families of victims of the US ‘Operation Eagle Talon’, a court ordered the US government to pay $420 million,” Mizan Online reported.
The American hostages were released in January 1981. After these events, Washington severed diplomatic relations with Tehran and imposed an embargo on the country.
In August, Iranian courts had already ordered the American government to pay $330 million for its alleged involvement in an abortive coup aimed at overthrowing the Islamic Republic in 1980.