Zahedi and his followers, financed by the foreign intelligence services, planted newspaper articles in persian publications and paid agent provocateurs to start riots. There were such riots in capital and other cities. Fearing his arrest, Zahedi went into hiding.On 15 August, after the first attempted coup d’état failed, the Shah fled first to Baghdad and then to Rome, Italy, after signing two decrees, one dismissing Mossadegh and the other naming Zahedi to replace him as Prime Minister.