In the spring of 1980, while most of the world was still riveted by one Iranian embassy crisis, another would soon rear its head on friendlier soil. For six days, Arab separatists calling themselves the Democratic Revolutionary Movement for the Liberation of Arabistan (DRMLA) seized the Iranian embassy in London, initially holding 22 hostages, mostly of Iranian descent.

Six men - demanding autonomy for the Arab province of Iranian Khuzestan along with the release of several dozen political prisoners in the Islamic Republic - stormed the embassy on April 30. The siege, covered with unusual media intensity in those pre-CNN days, put the British government's response under immediate and constant scrutiny. On the sixth and final day of the crisis, the militants executed one hostage, prompting Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to green light a prompt military response.

On May 5 - utilizing building blueprints, fiber-optic probes and some noise assistance from overhead planes instructed to fly low - the British Special Air Services (SAS) stormed the building in five teams of four. A gun fight ensued, leaving six dead - five militants, and one hostage.

The close media scrutiny, along with some negative reports of SAS's handling of the operation, created controversy in the aftermath of the siege. But Thatcher - along with, ironically enough, Iranian President Bani-Sadr - both backed the operation, which was viewed as an overall success for the SAS. The only surviving militant, Fowzi Nejad, was released in November 2008 after spending 28 years in prison. He was not deported back to Iran but instead is living in a safehouse in Britain.

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