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Organizer of failed Iran Nojeh coup dies in Britain

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Colonel Mohammad Baqer Bani-Ameri, the organizer and military commander of the failed Nojeh Coup, also known as Operation Neqab, d’etat in the Islamic Republic in 1980 has died in the UK’s capital city of London.

After a secret visit to the French capital of Paris and his meeting with ousted Iranian Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar, Bani-Ameri, who had retired with the military rank of colonel before the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, assumed the military command of Operation Neqab.

A member of the central command of Operation Neqab, Mehran Kalbadi has reportedly said that despite the presence of two army generals (Saeed Mehdioun and Ayat Mohaqeqi) in this group, Colonel Bani-Ameri managed to establish himself as the leader of the operation because he had joined the group before the others and was able to take the initiative sooner than the others while having close relations with other military personnel.

Bakhtiar managed to gain huge financial resources and offered them to Operation Neqab members after winning the support of Iraq’s former dictator Saddam Hussein, who had not entered a war with Iran.

According to Bani-Ameri’s plot, in the days leading to July 9, 1980, revolts were supposed to take place in the ethnic regions of Iran, particularly among Bakhtiari, Qashqaei and Boyer-Ahmadi ethnicities.

These revolts were aimed at distracting the attention of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps forces and other military units loyal to the Islamic Republic from Tehran and evacuate the capital to quell the unrest.

Simultaneously, hundreds of commandoes and Army Ground Forces in Tehran were ready to take over key areas in the capital including Mehrabad airport and other strategic centers.

American historian Mark J. Gasiorowski has carried out plenty of research into Operation Neqab.

With the exposure of Operation Neqab, hundreds of people involved in the plot such as pilots and army commanders were arrested.

Just months after the execution of those found guilty, particularly the military figures involved in Operation Neqab, and the cleansing of the army by the Islamic Republic, Iraq launched an eight-year war on Iran.

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