In several cities, outside the capital, armed opposition to the Khomeini forces has been reported. In Tabriz, the capital of Azerbaijan Province in the northeast, street battles have been fought for two days. Reports said that both supporters of Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi and left‐wing Azerbaijan separatists were fighting revolutionary forces. Witnesses in Tabriz said there were many casualties in today's fighting.

The attack on the American Embassy in Teheran began at about 10:15 A.M. when guerrillas began scaling the high brick walls and iron gates of the embassy compound in downtown Teheran, firing at the chancery, the main embassy building, as they dropped to the ground inside.

According to two reporters who were in the chancery at the time, the 19 United States marines guarding the embassy fired tear‐gas shells at the attacking guerrillas and pulled down the heavy iron shutters of the chancery windows.

Shortly after the initial attack, truckloads of pro‐Khomeini forces carrying a variety of automatic weapons arrived to surround the compound, and the firing grew more intense.

A 32‐year‐old leader of the commandos, who said he had returned to Iran from the United States six months ago to take part in the revolution, insisted to three reporters pinned down in a guardhouse in the compound that the embassy had been abandoned and had been taken over by agents of Savak, the disbanded Iranian secret police.

“We got a call at our command post that the Shah's people are inside and shooting,” he said. “We are not attacking the Americans — we have nothing against them.”

The embassy had operated with only a skeleton crew during the recent bloody battles in the capital, but because the shooting abated somewhat yesterday more than half of the staff of 185 had reported for work.