Thousands of Iranians chanting “Death to America” burnt U.S. flags on Friday, November 2 to mark the 33rd anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, just days before the American presidential election, Agence France Presse reported. The demonstrators also chanted anti-British and anti-Israeli slogans, and burnt Israeli flags, as they gathered in front of the site of the former embassy, dubbed the “den of spies” by the authorities who sponsor the annual commemoration. The anniversary of the November 4, 1979 embassy seizure, which saw Islamist students hold 52 U.S. diplomats hostage for 444 days, is commemorated in Iran according to the Persian calendar and this year fell on November 2. Now painted with anti-U.S. murals, the former embassy site is currently a training and educational facility controlled by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.