Ali Sayyad Shirazi Ali Sayyad Shirazi ( fa, علی صیاد شیرازی, June 1944 – 10 April 1999) was an Iranian regular military (''Artesh'') officer. He served as commander of the Ground Force during Iran–Iraq War. He was assassinated by Mojahedin-e Khal ...

, deputy chief of staff of the armed forces in Iran, was assassinated on 10 April 1999, 6:45 a.m. local time while leaving home for work. He was killed by an agent of

Mojahedin-e Khalq The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) or Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) ( fa, سازمان مجاهدين خلق ايران, sâzmân-e mojâhedīn-e khalq-e īrân), is an Iranian pol ...

, an Iranian opposition group, who was disguised as a

street cleaner A street sweeper or street cleaner may refer to a person's occupation or to a machine that cleans streets. Street sweepers have been employed in cities as "sanitation workers" since sanitation and waste removal became a priority. A stre ...

and handed Sayyad Shirazi a letter just before shooting him.

Background

There had been several attacks on senior officials in Iran in the months before Sayyad Shirazi's assassination, among them a senior judge, Ali Razini, the head of Iran's largest charity organisation, and

Mohsen Rafighdoost Mohsen Rafighdoust (also Rafiqdoust, fa, محسن رفیقدوست) is an Iranian Revolutionary Guards military officer and conservative politician. He is a member of the Islamic Coalition Party. Early life Rafighdoost was born around 1940 in so ...

, who were injured during separate assassination attempts. According to a spokesman for Mojahedin-e Khalq, an Iranian opposition group which advocates the end of Iran's clerical regime, several of the group's units had carried out the killings in northern Tehran. Mojahedin-e Khalq claimed the responsibility for the assassination of

Asadollah Lajevardi Sayyid Assadollah Ladjevardi ( fa, اسدالله لاجوردی; 1935 – 23 August 1998) was an Iranian conservative politician, prosecutor and warden. He was one of the officials responsible for the 1988 executions of Iranian political priso ...

, a former Iranian chief prosecutor and head of Iran's Prisons Organization, who was assassinated on 23 August 1998. Ali Sayyad Shirazi had personally commanded several of Iran's major offensives in the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...

, earning him the nickname "Iron Man".

Assassination

Ali Sayyad Shirazi was fatally shot by an unknown assailant while leaving home for work. He was taken to ''Farhang'' hospital where he was pronounced dead at 54. The assailant was disguised as a municipality street sweeper. According to witnesses, Sayyad Shirazi received three bullets. His son, Mahdi, who was present at the assassination scene, described the incident: Sayyad Shirazi was killed for his roles in

Mersad Operation Operation Forough Javidan ( fa, عملیات فروغ جاویدان, ''Operation Eternal Light'', MeK's codename) and Operation Mersad ( fa, عملیات مرصاد, ''Operation Ambush'', Iranian codename) were among the last major militar ...

. According to

Rahim Safavi Yahya "Rahim" Safavi ( fa, یحیی (رحیم) صفوی, born 1952) is an Iranian military commander who served as the chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Early life Safavi was born in 1952 in the city of Isfahan, Iran. C ...

, commenting 11 years after Sayyad Shirazi's death, the assassination operation was carried out at

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

's order. A Mujahedeen Khalq spokesman said that Shirazi had been targeted because for "purging and executing military personnel and for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of teen-agers in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980's, in which he commanded Iran's ground forces."

Perpetrator

Shahin Gobadi, the spokesman for MEK in Paris, told the Associated Press in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

via a telephone call that "the group's units inside Iran were responsible for the killing." Zahra Ghaemi was described by the Iranian media as being in the charge of the assassination team.

Aftermath

Sayyad Shirazi's funeral was held the day after the attack. Iranian supreme leader,

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنه‌ای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia '' marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third president ...

, participated. According to Sayyad Shirazi's son, Mahdi, the assassination file was being prosecuted by a court in France, and he was summoned in 2009 by the court to detail the incident.

References

{{reflist, 30em 1999 deaths Assassinated Iranian people Assassination campaigns 1999 in Iran Conflicts involving the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran