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Iranians mark anniversary of US Embassy takeover in Tehran

By The Associated Press
November 03 2016 05:32 AM

CP910625284 — Iranians attend a state-organized annual rally in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016, marking the 37th anniversary of the seizure of the embassy by militant Iranian students. On Nov. 4, 1979, Iranian militant students stormed the U.S. Embassy, taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days after Washington refused to hand over Iran\'s toppled shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, for trial in Iran. The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since then. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

TEHRAN, Iran – Thousands of Iranians have burned the American flag and chanted anti-U.S. slogans as they marked the anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by militant students 37 years ago.

Such protests take place every year outside the compound that once housed the embassy on the anniversary of the 1979 takeover that followed the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

Iranians at the rally outside the former embassy building on Thursday chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” and burned the U.S. and Israeli flags.

On Nov. 4, 1979, Iranian militant students stormed the U.S. Embassy, taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days after Washington refused to hand over Iran’s toppled shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, for trial in Iran.

The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since then.

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