Colonel Paul R. Shaffer (1930–1975) was a United States military aide to Iran who served as an air force pilot in both Korea and Vietnam.[1][2] In 1975, he was assassinated along with Lieutenant Colonel Jack H. Turner. Vahid Afrakhteh, a founding member of Peykar, confessed to the killing and later was executed.[3][4][5][6] Nevertheless, some sources have falsely attributed the assassination to the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), a group which Vahid Afrakhteh and Peykar tried to eliminate.[7]
- ^ "Daily Kent Stater 22 May 1975". Kent State University. Archived from the original on 1 April 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
- ^ "Desert Sun 21 May 1975" – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
- ^ Shirali, Mahnaz (28 July 2017). The Mystery of Contemporary Iran. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-47913-4.
The most notable actions of the Marxist Mojahedin were assassinations of Savak general, of two American military advisers, and a failed attempt against an American diplomat, all in 1975
- ^ Camp Ashraf: Iraqi Obligations and State Department Accountability: Joint Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, First Session, December 7, 2011. U.S. Government Printing Office. 2011. ISBN 978-0-16-090501-8.
Referred to in the Iranian press as the 'Iranian People's Strugglers', and later known as Peykar, this group led by Tagui Shahram, Vahid Arakhteh and Bahram Aram was one of several underground groups waging a covert war against the Shah's secret police, SAVAK. Afrakhteh, who later confessed to the killings of Americans, was executed
- ^ Iran Almanac and Book of Facts, Volumen 15. 1976.
Ten terrorists were sentenced to death... The condemned terrorists were Vahid Afrakhteh... The terroirsts were charged with the murders of Brigadier-general Reza Zandipur, United States Colonels Hawkins, Paul Shaffer and ack Turner, the U.S. Embassy's translator Hassan Hossnan
- ^ Reisinezhad, Arash (2018). The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 8. ASIN B07FBB6L8Y.
- ^ Ervand Abrahamian (1989). The Iranian Mojahedin. Yale University Press. p. 142.