page_title: 1981 Iranian Prime Minister's office bombing
section_title: Bombing
hierarchical_section_title: 1981 Iranian Prime Minister's office bombing / Bombing
caption_attribution_description: English: Front page of Ettelaat - Bombing in Tehran
context_page_description: The office of Mohammad Javad Bahonar, Prime Minister of Iran, was bombed on 30 August 1981 by the People's Mujahedin of Iran, killing Bahonar, President Mohammad Ali Rajai, and six other Iranian government officials. The briefcase bombing came two months after the Hafte Tir bombing, which killed over seventy senior Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Mohammad Beheshti, then Iran's second-highest official.
  According to sources, nobody "knew exactly who had been in the room at the time of the detonation." Eventually, there were three participants that had been unaccounted for that included Masoud Keshmiri, Rajai, and Bahonar. It was later revealed that both Rajai and Bahonar had died in the explosion. According to Albert Benliot, Ayatollah Khomeini charged the MEK with responsibility for the bombing, "however, there has been much speculation among academics and observers that these bombings may have actually been planned by senior IRP leaders, including later Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, to rid themselves of rivals within the IRP."
context_section_description: According to the survivors, the bomb exploded when one of the victims opened a briefcase brought by Masoud Keshmiri as an "agent of MEK". Ettela'at reported that the explosion destroyed the first floor and partially damaged the second floor of the Prime Minister's building, located on Pastor Street. Rajai, Bahonar, and military and security officials were killed. The injured were rescued from the rubble and transported to the hospital. Due to their severe burns, the corpses were not easily identified, and some of the victims were identified through their teeth.
caption: Front page of Ettela'at newspaper, reporting the blast.
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