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In cities as widespread as Bonn, London, Washington, Copenhagen, Los Angeles and Stockholm, groups of Iranian demonstrators have been marching, going on hunger strikes and besieging Iranian diplomatic offices. Two weeks ago, dissidents briefly occupied the Iranian interests section of the Algerian embassy in Washington; as they dispersed, one demonstrator was shot in the back. In Bonn a group of 110 Iranian demonstrators attacked the strongly fortified Iranian embassy.
Other consulates in Hamburg and West Berlin have also been occupied and vandalized. In New York City, more than 200 Iranian students staged a six-day hunger strike in front of the U.N. building. In Paris, pro-and anti-Khomeini groups have clashed violently, using sticks, broken bottles, chains and knives against one another. The cry "Death to Khomeini" is becoming as familiar in world capitals as "Death to the Shah" once was.
The protests are mostly organized by overseas supporters of the Islamic socialist guerrilla organization called the Mujahedin-e Khalq. The well-armed force is the Khomeini regime's most dangerous foe in Iran. The increase in Mujahedin protests against the fundamentalist government began in June, when Khomeini dismissed Abolhassan Banisadr as Iran's President. The protesters got a further boost on July 29, when Banisadr and Mujahedin Leader Massoud Rajavi made a spectacular clandestine escape from Iran to a Paris sanctuary. Says one Mujahedin supporter, who is currently studying at the University of Texas: "This regime is doing the same things as the Shah did. They are just doing them under the cover of Islam. They are destroying Islam, and we will destroy them."
Last week the Mujahedin were also on the attack in Iran, killing four high-ranking fundamentalists, including Hassan Ayat, Khomeini's top theoretician and a member of parliament. In Tehran,
Mujahedin guerrillas launched their biggest daytime attack in weeks. Dressed as Islamic Revolutionary Guards and carrying an antitank rocket, they marched into the Guard headquarters and opened fire. Casualty figures were unreported, but ambulances were still moving wounded victims out of the building hours after the assault.
In response, the Islamic government launched another intensive roundup of suspected Mujahedin, reportedly picking up more than 350 during the week. The revolutionary firing squads once again were busy: more than 65 dissidents were executed in ten days. One person who was seized in recent weeks but not killed was none other than the grandson of Ayatullah Khomeini himself. Seyed Hussein Khomeini, 20, a theology student in the religious city of Qum, was seized after making a revolutionary speech at a mosque in which he declared that "the new dictatorship established in religious form is worse than that of the Shah and the Mongols." Others have been shot for saying less. The young Khomeini now lives under virtual house arrest. —By George Russell. Reported by Sandra Burton/Paris and David S. Jackson/Washington
Jackson/Washington