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The Iranian regime’s 40-year campaign of assassinations
17 MINUTE READ
December 14, 2020

A suicide truck bomber sponsored by the Iranian regime attacked the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 23, 1983, killing 241 American service members.
FILE -This Sunday, Oct. 23, 1983 file photo shows the aftermath of a suicide truck bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. The blast _ the single deadliest attack on U.S. forces abroad since World War II _ claimed the lives of 241 American service members.(AP Photo/Jim Bourdier, File)

 

1979

December 7, 1979: Months after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (pictured below) founded the Islamic Republic of Iran, an assassin shot and killed the former ruler’s nephew Shahriar Shafiq in Paris. An Iranian official claimed responsibility, according to news reports.

1983

October 23, 1983: Hizballah attacked the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 American service members who were on a peacekeeping mission.

1985

June 14, 1985: Members of Hizballah hijacked TWA Flight 847 over Greece. Iran’s regime provided support for the hijackers, who killed a U.S. Navy diver and threatened to kill Jewish passengers.

1989

July 13, 1989: Iranian officials shot and killed the leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, and two aides after meeting them under diplomatic pretenses in Vienna, according to the U.S. Institute of Peace.

1991

August 6, 1991: Iranian intelligence agents assassinated former Iranian Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar at his home near Paris. The assassins posed as businessmen to access Bakhtiar’s residence, then beat and stabbed him to death, according to news reports.

1992

March 17, 1992: A suicide bomber attacked the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 20 people and wounding 252 others. Islamic Jihad, an organization tied to Hizballah, claimed responsibility. Israeli investigators say Iranian regime officials ordered the attack.

1996

June 25, 1996: Hizballah detonated a truck packed with explosives at the Khobar Towers complex that housed U.S. Air Force members in Saudi Arabia. A U.S. federal judge ruled in 2006 that Iran was responsible for the attack that killed 19 Americans.

2011

September 29, 2011: The Iranian regime plotted to kill Adel Al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, in an attack on U.S. soil. The United States has sanctioned four Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members in connection with the failed plot.

2012

June 2012: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force plotted bomb attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa, Kenya, targeting U.S., Israeli, Saudi and British nationals. Authorities foiled the plot. A Kenyan court later sentenced two Iranian agents, caught with 15 kilograms of explosives, to life in prison.

2018

October 30, 2018: Iranian intelligence agents plotted to kill Habib Jabor, the leader of an Iranian separatist group, in Denmark, according to Danish officials. Swedish authorities arrested a man said to have monitored Jabor’s home and extradited the suspect to Denmark.