Air force technicians and cadets at Doshan Tappeh base in Tehran rose up in support of the returning Ayatollah Khomeini, clashing with the Shah's elite Imperial Guard. The mutiny, joined by armed civilians and revolutionary guerrillas, marked the moment the military's loyalty visibly cracked, accelerating the collapse of the Pahlavi monarchy just days later.
For weeks, revolutionary fervor had swept Iran following Khomeini's return from exile, but the monarchy still commanded a large, American-equipped military presumed loyal to the Shah. On February 9, technicians and homafaran (air force cadets) at Doshan Tappeh, several of whom had watched a film of Khomeini's speeches, erupted in celebration and refused orders from their officers.
The Shah's feared Imperial Guard, still nominally in control, moved to suppress the mutiny, and gunfire broke out between guardsmen and air force personnel. Word spread fast through Tehran, and thousands of civilians, along with armed leftist and Islamist guerrilla groups, poured into the streets to defend the mutineers, breaking into armories and distributing weapons. The government's authority effectively evaporated over the next 48 hours. Within days, the military declared neutrality, and Khomeini's provisional government took power, ending 2,500 years of Persian monarchy and inaugurating the Islamic Republic.