Iran hostage crisis: Iranian students climb up U.S. embassy gates in Tehran, Iran. November 1979. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., posted an emotional message on Facebook following the joint U.S.-Israel attack on Iran Saturday morning, remembering the 52 American hostages taken from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held for 444 days in 1979.

A group of 150 Iranian students stormed the fully staffed embassy Nov. 4, 1979, an attack supported by then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, whose protégé and successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a targeted Israeli military strike Saturday in downtown Tehran.

Former President Jimmy Carter was unable to secure the hostages’ release, bolstering former President Ronald Reagan’s campaign. They were released on Reagan’s inauguration day.

“I was a freshman at LSU in 1979 when disgusting subhumans attacked American sovereign soil in Tehran, overwhelming a handful of our Marines, seizing our embassy and taking American hostages,” Higgins wrote in the post. “We’ve been looking forward to today for 47 years. The perfect alignment of leaders at the top in America and Israel with real courage and unwavering will to do what has to be done.”

“In the south, we give fair warning before we crack a jaw,” he added. “I would say 46 years, 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days is fair warning. Fly your flags America. HUA.”

The Bill of Rights Institute contributed to this report.