Rioters in the Diplomatic Enclave gather and watch as smoke rises from the burnt U.S. embassy while a Pakistani military helicopter (SA 330 Puma) hovers over them.
Four embassy personnel were killed in the attack: a U.S. Marine Security Guard, a U.S. Army warrant officer, and two local Pakistani employees. The American ambassador Arthur W. Hummel Jr. was outside of the embassy at the time of the attack and therefore was able to escape from the rioters before being harmed. Shortly after the riots began, American president Jimmy Carter contacted Pakistani president Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq by phone to warn him against allowing the embassy employees' safety to be compromised. However, Zia proved reluctant to dispatch troops to disperse the crowd.[3] By the morning of 22 November, the Pakistan Army moved in to retake the embassy grounds: two of the rioting students were killed and as many as 70 additional rioters were injured.[3] According to witnesses at the nearby British High Commission, well over 1,500 people took part in the attack on the embassy.
The burning of the embassy in Islamabad played into Khomeini's Islamic Revolution export propaganda amidst the Iran hostage crisis, and Khomeini himself later publicly praised the Pakistani rioters' actions after hearing about the attack. Zia condemned the embassy burning as "not in keeping with lofty Islamic traditions" while refraining from overtly criticizing Jamaat-i-Islami, which had been a political ally in his Islamization of Pakistan.[3]
The seizure was mostly planned by students at Quaid-i-Azam University, where the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami had recently won elections for the student body. The protesters shouted anti-American slogans. At first glance the event seemed to be a small protest outside the embassy's walls. Later, buses filled with Jamaat-i-Islami supporters arrived at the main gate. Hundreds of people began climbing over the walls and trying to pull the walls down using ropes. According to the staff at the neighboring British High Commission there were as many as 1,500 demonstrators.[5]
Pakistani police tried to disperse the protesters by firing into them. According to reports, two protesters were killed and 70 injured.[4]
Outbreak of violence
According to an American investigation, the protesters, believing that an American Marine on the roof of the embassy had fired first, opened fire after a bullet fired at the gate's lock by one rioter ricocheted and struck other protesters. Twenty-year-old Marine Corporal Steve Crowley was mortally wounded by a bullet and transported to the embassy's secure communication vault along with the rest of personnel serving in the embassy, including undercover CIA officer Gary Schroen.[7][1] The rioters breached the compound and set fire to the lower floors of the chancery with Molotov cocktails. Although the Marines used tear gas against the protestors, embassy officials denied them permission to use lethal force. Several American civilians were taken hostage in the embassy residences by the rioters, while U.S. Army warrant officer Brian Ellis was killed. The rioters intended to take these hostages back to campus for a sham trial for espionage, but they were rescued by Pakistani police.[5]
Pakistani soldiers rescued nearly 100 people who were trapped in the embassy vault for five hours. The vault had access to the roof. Pakistani forces landed helicopters on the roof, pushed back the protesters and rescued the US embassy staff.[4]
Locked behind steel-reinforced doors, the Americans waited for help to come and rescue them from the smoke-filled building. During the wait the rioters attempted to break in and shot at them through the ventilation shafts.[5] After nightfall a Marine unit was able to sneak out a back exit from the vault as the front door was too damaged to open. Finding the embassy empty they led the rest of the 140 people from the vault out into the courtyard.[1]
Aftermath
After the attack, nonessential embassy personnel were evacuated back to the United States. Ayatollah Khomeini praised the attack, while Zia-ul-Haq condemned it in a televised address, stating "I understand that the anger and grief over this incident were quite natural, but the way in which they were expressed is not in keeping with the lofty Islamic traditions of discipline and forbearance."[5]