 By the sixth day of the siege the gunmen had become increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress in meeting their demands . That evening , they killed one of the hostages and threw his body out of the embassy . As a result , the British government ordered the Special Air Service ( SAS ) , a special forces regiment of the British Army , to conduct an assault to rescue the remaining hostages . Shortly afterwards , soldiers abseiled from the roof of the building and forced entry through the windows . During the 17 @-@ minute raid , the SAS rescued all but one of the remaining hostages , and killed five of the six terrorists . The soldiers subsequently faced accusations that they unnecessarily killed two of the terrorists , but an inquest into the deaths eventually cleared the SAS of any wrongdoing . The remaining terrorist was prosecuted and served 27 years in British prisons . 
