Operation Opera

[Jango]

If you want to get straight to the action, then 19:35.

Overview

Video "Raid on the Reactor"

American and coalition forces may have faced a nuclear-armed Iraq during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, and again during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, had Israel not destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981.

The attack, codenamed “Operation Opera,” surprised the Iraqis and the rest of the world, though for Israel it had long been in planning. It was only after the failures on the diplomatic front, and the consultation of military and intelligence experts with Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s cabinet, that Israel chose to go ahead with the attack on the Iraqi reactor.

Iraq established its nuclear program in the 1960s, but was unable to make significant progress on it until the late 1970s. In the 1970s, Iraq attempted to purchase a plutonium production reactor from France. Iraq also wanted to purchase a reprocessing reactor. France denied these requests but, instead, agreed to build a research reactor and research laboratories. With French support, Iraq began construction of a 40-megawatt light-water nuclear reactor at the Al Tuwaitha Nuclear Center. The type of reactor was named Osiris, after the Egyptian god of the dead. The French renamed the reactor they were providing to Iraq the Osiraq, to include the name of Iraq in the title. The Iraqis called it “Tammuz” after the month in the Arabic calendar that the Baath party came to power in 1968. 1

During the Iran-Iraq war, on September 30, 1980, a pair of Iranian Phantom jets, part of a group of aircraft that were attacking a nearby conventional power plant, bombed the Osirak reactor but only light damage was reported.

Israeli intelligence confirmed Iraq’s intentions to develop nuclear weapons at the Osirak nuclear reactor and were aware of Iraqi threats against Israel. While, in 1981, some estimates showed Iraq was five to ten years away from building nuclear weapons, other intelligence reports estimated that Iraq could have a bomb within a year or two.2 It was later proven that Iraq was within a year of obtaining nuclear weapons.3

Israel engaged in an intense diplomatic effort to try to halt French financing and support for the Iraqi project. The Israelis knew that time was short because, if diplomatic efforts failed, they would have to launch a military strike before the reactor was loaded with nuclear material to avoid the danger of nuclear fallout from the attack.4

The decision to use military means to destroy the Iraqi reactor was not taken lightly.

Diplomacy Fails

When the Israelis learned of the Iraqi threat, during Yitzhak Rabin’s term, they began diplomatic negotiations. Upon Begin’s election as Prime Minister, he appointed Moshe Dayan as Foreign Minister. Dayan engaged in a feverish diplomatic battle to try to avert a nuclear-armed Iraq.5

Israeli diplomacy engaged France, Italy (the main suppliers to the reactor) and the United States. A high-level Israeli negotiating team, led by then-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yitzchak Shamir, negotiated with French presidents Valery Giscard-D’Estaing and his successor François Mitterand. The French proved intransigent, looking out for their own economic interests as Iraq was by far their top customer for military hardware. The payments to France came mostly in the form of oil. According to Shamir, French Minister for Foreign Affairs Claude Cheysson told him that there were only two major Arab powers: Iraq and the PLO. Despite Shamir’s personal affinity toward the French, as they had sheltered him while he was a member of the pre-state uprising against the British occupation of Israel, he was extremely disappointed when he realized that France was unwilling to cooperate and prevent Saddam Hussein’s Iraq from becoming a nuclear state, despite urgent and emotional pleas by the Israelis that Iraq was preparing a nuclear holocaust against Israel and the Jewish people.6

Shamir reported that the Italians, a significant consumer of Iraqi oil, were equally uncooperative. They denied any involvement in Osirak and responded to the Israeli appeals with indifference.7 Any hope that the nuclear threat to Israel could be contained by diplomatic means rested solely on American cooperation.

In meetings with the Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger and Secretary of State Alexander Haig, there was agreement about the Israeli assessment regarding the Iraqi nuclear threat. American representatives even verified Israeli assessments that Iraq was working to reach nuclear capability and would exploit the ability to influence and destroy Israel. Despite the American consensus, the Americans refused to act, perhaps because they did not truly grasp the danger, or because they did not want to upset Iraq, then fighting America’s enemy, Iran. 8 According to Moshe Nissim, then Israeli Minister of Justice, had Iraq obtained nuclear weapons, it would have been wooed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union.9

Internal Opposition

Despite the failure of diplomacy, the Israeli government still engaged in a debate over the advisability of military action against the reactor. According to Yitzchak Shamir, some “greatly exaggerated the backlash that Israel would face.” Shimon Peres, then chairman of the Labor Alignment in the Knesset, tried to deter the government from carrying out the attack, claiming that Israel would be like a “thistle in the wilderness” after the operation.10

Peres was not alone in opposing the raid at Osirak. In deliberations before the Cabinet, opponents of the attack represented about half of those who engaged in discussions. They argued that the attack would unite the Arab world, be considered an act of war, would harm the peace agreement with Egypt, would result in the destruction of Israel’s nuclear reactor in Dimona, encourage an arms buildup in the Arab world, and lead to a European and American embargo on Israel.11

According to Moshe Nissim, it was the need to contend with the danger of an atom bomb in the hands of a dangerous and irresponsible Arab ruler who would not hesitate to use it against Israel that convinced Begin of the urgency and necessity to destroy the Iraqi reactor.12 In addition, Begin knew the Likud had a chance of losing the upcoming elections. If Labor, led by Shimon Peres, came into power, Begin feared the plans to prevent Iraq from obtaining a nuclear arsenal would be shelved. Begin, however, was not about to let Israel’s security be weakened due to election considerations.13


Logistics

Map of Israeli attack

The Israelis had to remove some of the F-16s' fuel tanks to make room for the heavy munitions necessary for the attack. They also needed to assign F-15s to guard the bombers in case there was need to engage the Iraqis. The mission was aborted once due to a suspected media leak and the date of the attack was rescheduled for the next month.

On June 7, 1981, the mission was given a green light. IDF Chief*of*Staff, Lt. Gen. Rafael Eitan, briefed the pilots personally. Displaying unusual emotion, he told them: “The alternative is our destruction.” With that speech in mind, fourteen F-15s and F-16s flew off the runway of Etzion Air Force base in the Negev, and proceeded to pass over Jordanian, Saudi, and Iraqi airspace, to attack the French-built Iraqi nuclear reactor. The flight to Iraq was done low-level so as to minimize the possibility of being spotted by aircraft radar in any of the Arab nations the planes flew over.

King Hussein of Jordan was vacationing in Aqaba during the attack. Seeing the planes pass over his head, he immediately notified the Iraqis to warn them that they may be the targets of an Israeli attack. It appears that Iraq never got the message as communication errors prevented the message from reaching Iraq.17 18

Without King Hussein's warning, Iraqi defenses were caught completely by surprise and opened fire too late. In one minute and twenty seconds, the reactor lay in ruins.

The attack was universally criticized. The United States voted for a Security Council resolution condemning Israel and, as a punishment, delayed a shipment of aircraft to Israel that had already been authorized.

The destruction of the reactor helped numerous countries besides Israel. Had Iraq obtained nuclear weapons they might have been able to achieve regional hegemony.19 Ten years after the attack, the American government noted this. In June 1991, during a visit to Israel after the Gulf War, then-Defense Secretary Richard Cheney gave Major General David Ivry, then commander of the Israeli Air Force, a satellite photograph of the destroyed reactor. On the photograph, Cheney wrote, “For General David Ivri, with thanks and appreciation for the outstanding job he did on the Iraqi Nuclear Program in 1981, which made our job much easier in Desert Storm.”20

Professor Louis Rene Beres wrote that, “Israel’s citizens, together with Jews and Arabs, American, and other coalition soldiers who fought in the Gulf War may owe their lives to Israel’s courage, skill, and foresight in June 1981. Had it not been for the brilliant raid at Osiraq, Saddam’s forces might have been equipped with atomic warheads in 1991. Ironically, the Saudis, too, are in Jerusalem’s debt. Had it not been for Prime Minister Begin’s resolve to protect the Israeli people in 1981, Iraq’s SCUDs falling on Saudi Arabia might have spawned immense casualties and lethal irradiation.” 21

According to Yitzhak Shamir, “Deterrence was not attained by other countries – France and Italy – and even the United States. It was attained by the State of Israel and its Prime Minster who decided, acted and created a fact that no one in the world today – with the exception of our enemies – regrets.”22

Final bombing run.

The Osirak reactor prior to the Israeli attack

Nose of the F-16A flown by Ilan Ramon in Operation Babylon, showing the triangular emblem of the attack.

Read the full text and first video, very informative.

How the Israelis told the Jordanian ATC that they are Saudis, and telling Saudis that they are Jordanian AF. Then flying very low for this much distance.

 

[19887]

Operation Opera (Hebrew: אופרה‎‎), also known as Operation Babylon, was a surprise Israeli air strike carried out on 7 June 1981, which destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor under construction 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) southeast of Baghdad. The operation came after Iran's unsuccessful Operation Scorch Sword operation had caused minor damage to the same nuclear facility the previous year, the damage having been subsequently repaired by French technicians. Operation Opera, and related Israeli government statements following it, established the Begin Doctrine, which explicitly stated the strike was not an anomaly, but instead “a precedent for every future government in Israel.” Israel's counter-proliferation preventive strike added another dimension to their existing policy of deliberate ambiguity, as it related to the nuclear capability of other states in the region.

In 1976, Iraq purchased an "Osiris"-class nuclear reactor from France. While Iraq and France maintained that the reactor, named Osirak by the French, was intended for peaceful scientific research, the Israelis viewed the reactor with suspicion, and said that it was designed to make nuclear weapons.On 7 June 1981, a flight of Israeli Air Force F-16A fighter aircraft, with an escort of F-15As, bombed and heavily damaged the Osirak reactor. Israel claimed it acted in self-defense, and that the reactor had "less than a month to go" before "it might have become critical."Ten Iraqi soldiers and one French civilian were killed. The attack took place about three weeks before the elections for the Knesset.

The attack was strongly criticized around the world, including in the United States, and Israel was rebuked by the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly in two separate resolutions. Media reactions were no less negative: "Israel's sneak attack ... was an act of inexcusable and short-sighted aggression", wrote the New York Times, while the Los Angeles Times called it "state-sponsored terrorism".The destruction of Osirak has been cited as an example of a preventive strike in contemporary scholarship on international law.

The video was filmed from the cockpit during the attack

 

[Mentee]

despite of the fact that israel is a war criminal,just imagine for a moment, nukes at the disposal of a psychopath
like saddam-----

 

[19887]

despite of the fact that israel is a war criminal,just imagine for a moment, nukes at the disposal of a psychopath
like saddam-----

Remember that one year before the israeli attack,iran attacked the reactor too(attack failed).
After the denunciations, all the world Thanked Israel
In 1991, after the invasion of coalition forces to Iraq, sent US Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney to Israel's ambassador to the United States David Ivry who was the commander of the air force during the assault, an American satellite image of the bombed reactor, and wrote "thank you and appreciation, you have weighed on our mission Desert Storm.
*The same with syrian reactor (2007)

 

[Mentee]

Remember that one year before the israeli attack,iran attacked the reactor too(attack failed).
After the denunciations, all the world Thanked Israel
In 1991, after the invasion of coalition forces to Iraq, sent US Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney to Israel's ambassador to the United States David Ivry who was the commander of the air force during the assault, an American satellite image of the bombed reactor, and wrote "thank you and appreciation, you have weighed on our mission Desert Storm.
*The same with syrian reactor (2007)

well iam not downplaying israel's role in this regard,give the devil his due

one question,i would like to ask, why you folks have roundles on your jets like our airforce,they look shitty and distort the beauty of the beast

 

[The Sandman]

despite of the fact that israel is a war criminal,just imagine for a moment, nukes at the disposal of a psychopath
like saddam-----

So true

 

[raptor22]

The reason why Iran didn't destroy the reactor in "operation scorch sword" was due to not knowing that reactor was loaded with fissile material or not ... that's why Iran preferred to just destroy building adjacent to the reactor ...

 

[Mentee]

just for the record @500 first thanked my post then unthanked it,what he's up to

 

[f1000n]

It was later said that with this reactor they weren't able to develop nukes, far from. It's more that Israel doesn't want Arab/Muslim states to advance with knowledge as that would threaten them in the future.

 

[19887]

well iam not downplaying israel's role in this regard,give the devil his due

one question,i would like to ask, why you folks have roundles on your jets like our airforce,they look shitty and distort the beauty of the beast

The red circle with a white and a black dot in the middle marks interception
Empty red circle, marking half interception
Triangle with a picture of a nuclear reactor marks the attack on the Iraqi nuclear reactor
And yes, it disfigures the plane

 

[Thəorətic Muslim]

It was later said that with this reactor they weren't able to develop nukes, far from. It's more that Israel doesn't want Arab/Muslim states to advance with knowledge as that would threaten them in the future.

While the Arab/Muslim world kept silence, occasionally offering lip service.

This "world" is more concerned about the family in power than actually anything beneficial towards it's citizens.

 

[Blacklight]

A more detailed account of the event:

Air Strike at Osirak
By John T. Correll

April 1, 2012

Rumors have been circulating for years that Israel was getting ready to launch a pre-emptive attack on Iran’s emerging nuclear weapons capability. The speculation intensified as Iran prepared to move its uranium enrichment plant into a hardened mountain bunker. Iran continued to resist diplomatic and economic pressures to cease its quest for an atomic bomb.

In February, Israel warned that the window of opportunity for a successful military operation was closing, and an attack could not be delayed much longer if it was to be done at all. News reports said the Pentagon believed Israel might attack as early as April.


There were inevitable comparisons to a situation with marked similarities 30 years ago, when the Israeli Air Force wiped out a nuclear reactor in Iraq just before it was to be activated. This is the story of the air strike at Osirak.


In the fall of 1980, Israeli military intelligence reported that the Osirak nuclear reactor, 12 miles southeast of Baghdad, would become operational between July and November of 1981. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had no need for a reactor for electric power production or other peaceful purposes; Iraqi oil reserves were ranked sixth in the world.

What Saddam really wanted from the reactor was the spent atomic fuel, from which plutonium could be extracted to manufacture the core of an implosion-style atomic bomb. The target for his bomb would be Israel.

If Israel was going to act, it had to be soon. Once the reactor was in operation and “hot”—fueled with uranium—a bombing attack would spread radioactive fallout across Baghdad.

Saddam’s Reactor
Saddam had gotten his reactor from France, which had also been the source of Israel’s nuclear technology in the 1950s. Since then, the French had made a policy switch and sought to improve relations with the Arab world. In the wake of severe gasoline shortages in the United States and Western Europe following the Arab oil embargo of 1973-1974, France was eager to obtain a secure supply of oil.

When Iraq came shopping for a nuclear reactor, France found the offer of oil at favorable prices too good to pass up. Potential profit from weapons sales was another consideration. In 1975, the French agreed to sell Iraq a 70-megawatt Osiris reactor and a low-grade one-megawatt Isis training reactor. Italy, with similar motivations, agreed to provide a plant to reprocess the nuclear fuel and separate the plutonium.

In 1976, work began on a nuclear complex at al Tuwaitha, near a bend in the Tigris River. The French name for the large reactor was “Osirak,” combining “Osiris” and “Iraq.” Saddam and the Iraqi leaders renamed the reactors Tammuz I and II, after Tammuz 17 (July 17), the date of their takeover in 1958 from the previous regime. Outside of Iraq, both the large reactor and the nuclear complex continued to be known as Osirak.

In 1978, France agreed to Iraq’s demands for highly enriched uranium, suitable for military purposes, to fuel the reactors, refusing an Israeli appeal to substitute lower grade “caramel” fuel. In April 1979, two reactor cores were destroyed by sabotage in France, just before they were to be shipped to Iraq. This set the project back by six months; many blamed the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.

The small Isis/Tammuz II reactor was activated in February 1980. In June 1980, the first shipment of enriched uranium arrived in Iraq.

Israel appealed to France and Italy to cut off assistance and sought support without much result from the US and others, as Saddam Hussein was not yet the international pariah he would become after the invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Even the United States, Israel’s greatest ally, was somewhat favorably disposed toward Saddam, who went to war with Iran in September 1980. The US regarded Iran, which had recently held 52 Americans hostage for more than a year, as its main enemy in the area. Bucking the trend, CIA director William J. Casey gave Israel almost unlimited access to imagery of al Tuwaitha from the US KH-11 reconnaissance satellite.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that the Iraqi reactor was not being used for military purposes. However, IAEA inspections were patently worthless. Inspected nations could veto visits from inspectors they did not like, and Soviets and Hungarians did all inspections in Iraq. Further, inspected nations could choose which facilities to show. In the Osirak case, inspectors were not permitted to see the Italian reprocessing lab.

Plan of Attack
Menachem Begin, the hard-line prime minister of Israel, believed the Osirak reactor had to be eliminated, but faced divided opinion in his own Cabinet. Among those against a military attack was the defense minister, Ezer Weizman, and Labor Party leader Shimon Peres—a former defense minister and challenger to Begin in the upcoming June 1981 election.

The opponents feared even a successful strike would only postpone the problem and would have a disastrous effect on Israel in international public opinion.

Begin’s principal supporters were Ariel Sharon, retired general and war hero, and at the time agriculture minister in Begin’s Cabinet, Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Lt. Gen. Rafael Eitan, Chief of Staff of Israeli armed forces, and Maj. Gen. David Ivry, commander of the Israeli Air Force.

Weizman resigned, and Begin took over the defense ministry portfolio himself.

In July 1980, Israel raised the issue of the Iraqi reactor in public and warned that Israel would react to the threat. The decision to strike was made in secret by Begin and the Cabinet in October 1980.

Tentative planning to destroy the reactor had begun in 1978. One possible model was Israel’s long-distance Entebbe raid that rescued captives held in Uganda in 1976, but that approach—requiring ground action and large numbers of troops and big, slow-moving aircraft—was scratched as too complicated and risky. The US disaster, Desert One, in April 1980, when an Entebbe-style effort failed to free hostages in Tehran, was also taken into account.

Osirak would be an air operation. It was more than 600 miles to the nuclear complex at al Tuwaitha, with the adversarial nations of Saudi Arabia and Jordan in between. The IAF had never flown a mission at that range. Most of its aircraft could not carry a full bomb load that far without refueling en route, and refueling would increase the danger of discovery or intercept.

The aircraft chosen for the job became available by chance. Israel had F-16s on order from the United States with delivery due in 1982. However, Israel leapt at an offer to buy F-16s earlier when a sale to Iran was canceled when the Shah was overthrown. These aircraft began arriving in July 1980, and Israel had 53 of them on hand at the time of the Osirak mission.

The speed and small size of the F-16 limited its vulnerability to enemy fire. With internal fuel capacity plus centerline and wing tanks, the F-16 could go the distance without refueling.

Israel had precision guided munitions, but “smart” weapons introduced complications, such as the effects of weather and the requirement to fly a stabilized pattern for delivery. Planners decided to keep the mission simple. They calculated that eight bombs directly on target would destroy it, and that 16 well-aimed gravity bombs dropped at low level would have a 99 percent probability of success.

The F-16’s superb computerized bomb sighting system supported the decision to conduct the attack with conventional gravity bombs. The strike force would consist of eight F-16s, each carrying two Mk 84 2,000-pound bombs, with F-15s flying air cover for them.

A 60-foot concrete dome several inches thick covered the Osirak reactor. Delivered as planned, a 2,000-pound bomb could punch through that easily.

The Special Squadron
The F-16s were assigned to a new squadron formed at Ramat David Air Base, north of Tel Aviv in the Jezreel Valley. The squadron commander and base commander was Col. Iftach Spector, revered in the Israeli Air Force for having shot down 15 MiGs in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. (Spector was not a hero in the eyes of everyone. In 1967, he led the squadron that strafed USS Liberty in international waters, supposedly by mistake, killing 34 Americans during the Six-Day War.)

Twelve Israeli pilots trained in F-16s at Hill AFB, Utah, prior to delivery of the first aircraft. Back in Israel they flew low-level, long-distance exercises. They were not told the mission they were training for, but it was easy to guess.

The marginally competent Iranian Air Force made the first attempt to destroy the Osirak reactor, in September 1980. Two F-4s attacked with rockets and guns, but did little damage. Saddam sent word that the nuclear effort was directed against “the Zionist foe,” not Iran.

Crews to carry out the Israeli attack were hand-picked by Eitan and Ivry. The strike force F-16s were grouped into two flights of four. Lt. Col. Zeev Raz would head the mission and fly the lead aircraft and Lt. Col. Amir Nachumi would lead the second flight.

Training was well under way when Spector decided he wanted to fly on the mission. Ivry turned him down, but Spector appealed to Eitan, who supported him.

Spector replaced one of the junior pilots on the team, and flew some F-16 missions from Ramat David, but did not receive the full training.

Raz remained mission leader. Spector would fly as Nachumi’s wingman, putting him sixth in order on the bomb run.

The strike would be on a Sunday, based on an assumption—erroneous as it turned out—that the French and Italian technicians would be taking their day of rest. The F-16s would attack from west to east, late in the day, with the setting sun at their backs.

The raid was initially scheduled for May 17, but canceled on an appeal from Peres, who urged Begin to wait until after the upcoming French elections. Socialist Francois Mitterand, likely to be the new president of France, had assured his friend Peres that he would “excise the Iraqi reactor of its military potential.” After the elections, however, President Mitterand sadly concluded that he was bound to abide by the previous agreement with Iraq.

Begin, furious, rescheduled the strike for Sunday, June 7. Peres led Begin in the public opinion polls. Figuring he would lose the election, Begin believed that removal of the Osirak reactor, critical to the security of Israel, must be accomplished before the reluctant Peres took office.

The F-16s and F-15s deployed to Etzion Air Base on the Sinai Peninsula, from where the attack would be launched. Security was tight. Telephone lines from the base, except for a few for official use, were cut off. Ground crews and technicians were not told what the mission was.

The eight F-16s were heavily laden for the attack. Each carried two Mk 84 bombs, two AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles, a 300-gallon centerline fuel tank, and two 370-gallon wing tanks. They rolled down the runway and struggled into the air at 3:55 p.m., which was 4:55 p.m. in Iraq.

80 Seconds Over Osirak
King Hussein of Jordan, aboard his yacht in the Gulf of Aqaba, saw the F-16s pass by, headed east. Hussein, a pilot himself, recognized what they were. He sent a warning message to Iraq, but it was never received by anyone in authority.

The F-16s and F-15s did not follow a straight line to the target. Their dogleg course was plotted to best avoid detection by Jordanian radar to the north and the Saudi E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System operating to the south. They maintained radio silence, flying on the Saudi side of the border at 360 knots (414 mph) and about 150 feet above the desert floor.

Shortly before crossing into Iraq, about 55 minutes into the flight, they dropped their wing tanks, which was risky with bombs mounted alongside on the wings, to lighten their load and improve their range.

The initial point for the attack, critical to the approach, was supposedly an unmistakable terrain feature, an island in the middle of a lake. Recent rains had covered the island with water, however, and Raz missed it momentarily, putting his calculations slightly off.

Fifty miles out, the F-15 escorts broke away and climbed to 25,000 feet to fly patrol and provide air cover. The strike force had been briefed to expect challenge from Iraqi air defenses after they crossed the Euphrates, but there was none. The Israelis turned northeast toward the target.

The nuclear complex came into view ahead on the banks of the Tigris. It was a quarter-mile square, the white concrete dome of the Osirak facility in the middle, with the Italian lab, the Isis reactor, and various shops and buildings off to the side.

The F-16s released their flares and chaff to confuse heat-seeking missiles and radar.

Four miles from the target, the F-16s climbed sharply to 5,000 feet. The tactic was to dive from altitude on the target at a speed of more than 600 mph at a 35-degree angle, releasing the bombs at high velocity from 3,500 feet. The bombs were fuzed with just enough delay to punch through the concrete dome to the reactor before exploding.

Because of the glitch at the initial point, Raz began his dive late and had to loop around to realign with the target. This meant his wingman, Maj. Amos Yadlin, bombed first, with Raz dropping second. The other F-16s followed close behind.

The F-16s swooped down on the Osirak complex at 6:35 p.m. Iraqi time. From first bomb to last, only 80 seconds elapsed. Smoke and flames rose into the air as 14 of the 16 bombs hit inside the dome and destroyed the reactor. The two bombs that missed were both dropped by Spector. The Isis reactor and the Italian lab were not damaged.

The attack caught the air defense gunners flat-footed. They were in the cafeteria for supper, the radars shut down and cold. The defenders got a few shots off at the last of the F-16s, but they were shooting wildly and manually, without radar or computers. Attempting to pick off the diving F-16s, the gunners raked their own forces across the way.

As the F-16s came off the target, they broke left and made a fast departure from al Tuwaitha before climbing to altitude to rendezvous with the F-15s. After verifying that they had taken no losses, Raz led them on a beeline southwest to the Saudi border and then across Jordan to Etzion. They met no resistance on the way home and landed at Etzion just after 7 p.m.

They had been in the air for three hours and 10 minutes.

Contrary to expectation, the foreign technicians had taken the Muslim Sabbath on Friday as their day off, but most of them had already left work when the attack happened on Sunday. One French technician was killed. Reports of Iraqi deaths ranged from zero to 10, and the low-shooting Iraqi gunners inflicted some of the casualties.

Saddam ordered the execution of the air defense zone commander and all officers in his command over the rank of major. Twenty-three other officers and pilots were sent to prison.

Outrage at the UN
Iraq and France complained bitterly. The Soviet Union and other nations chimed in. A New York Times editorial stated, “Israel’s sneak attack on a French-built nuclear reactor near Baghdad was an act of inexcusable and short-sighted aggression.”

In the immediate aftermath, the US suspended deliveries of F-16s to Israel “for the time being.” However, President Reagan soon announced, “There is no fundamental re-evaluation of the United States’ relationship with Israel, nor does the United States government anticipate any change.”

UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim of Austria denounced the Osirak attack as a “clear contravention of international law.” In 1976, he had likewise assailed the Israeli raid to rescue its hostages in Entebbe.

Waldheim’s credibility on the subject of Israel took a nose dive when it was later revealed he had been a Nazi party member in World War II, serving in German units that executed partisans and sent Jews to death camps.

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, US delegate to the UN, said the “diplomatic means available to Israel had not been exhausted,” and the UN Security Council “strongly condemned” Israel’s destruction of the reactor in a unanimous vote.

William Safire reached a different conclusion in a New York Times column. He declared that the Osirak strike “has enabled the rest of the world to indulge in an orgy of hypocrisy.” Elimination of the reactor was to the benefit of all, he wrote, including the Arab world, which had feared domination by a nuclear-armed Iraq.

Begin’s political fortunes rebounded. His Likud party won the June election and he remained prime minister until October 1983, when Yitzhak Shamir, who had staunchly supported him in the Osirak crisis, succeeded him.

Much of the international anger toward Israel soon faded. F-16 deliveries to Israel resumed Sept. 1, and France declined to sell Iraq a replacement for the destroyed reactor.

In time, the world had reason to be glad Saddam did not have nuclear weapons. Even his Arab neighbors joined the coalition against Iraq when he invaded Kuwait in 1990.

During the 1991 Gulf War, coalition forces destroyed what was left of the al Tuwaitha complex. After the war, US Defense Secretary Richard Cheney told Ivry the Osirak operation had “made our job much easier in Desert Storm.”

Sequels
Years later, Israel carried out a preemptive attack against another nuclear site, but this time the world paid much less attention. In 2007, Israel and the US were aware of a nuclear reactor—and probably a nuclear weapons program—under development in Syria with North Korean assistance. That September, Israeli F-15s and F-16s destroyed the facility using Maverick missiles and 500-pound bombs.

News reports of the attack said the most likely targets were “weapons caches” supporting missile attacks on Israel. Syria, not eager to acknowledge it was working on nuclear weapons, said only that Israel had bombed a building “related to the military.” More than a month later, US officials said the target was a partially constructed nuclear reactor. No other Arab nation criticized the raid, and the main international complaint came from North Korea.

Iran’s nuclear program, known to the public since 2002, has been of greater substance and concern. Although the first target for an Iranian atomic bomb would be Israel, such a weapon would also be a threat to Europe and the United States.

The US itself has considered a military option against Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and such a response was still under discussion in recent months. Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts bogged down in the face of Iran’s defiance.

In September 2009, the US disclosed that Iran had carved a nuclear facility out of a mountain near Qom, 100 miles southwest of Tehran. This January, Iran acknowledged it had begun uranium enrichment there.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Feb. 2 that if Iran proceeded with its nuclear program, the window of opportunity for a military operation was closing.

“Whoever says ‘later’ may find that later is too late,” he said.

John T. Correll was editor in chief of Air Force Magazine for 18 years and is now a contributor. His most recent article, “The Man From Thud Ridge” appeared in the March issue.


@Raider 21 @SQ8 @The Eagle @Sulman Badshah @HRK and others.

Would appreciate if you Gents would comment on the above.

 

[Blacklight]

The New York Times version:



ISRAELI JETS DESTROY IRAQI ATOMIC REACTOR; ATTACK CONDEMNED BY U.S. AND ARAB NATIONS

• By David K. Shipler, Special To the New York Times

• June 9, 1981

Israeli planes yesterday bombed and destroyed an atomic reactor near Baghdad that would have enabled Iraq to manufacture nuclear weapons, the Israeli Government announced today.

Prime Minister Menachem Begin justified the action as having been essential to prevent the ''evil'' President Saddam Hussein of Iraq from attacking Israeli cities with atomic bombs of the type dropped on Hiroshima during World War II.

The official Israeli announcement of the raid said that none of the foreign specialists known to have been working at the facility had been hurt. The number of Iraqi casualties was not known.

(France, which was building the reactor with Italy, announced that a French technician, identified only as Mr. Chausspied, had been killed in the raid. Page A7.) Enriched Uranium Reported at Site

At least 25 pounds of enriched uranium were reported to have been on the site. The Israeli pilots, all of whom returned safely, according to the announcement, were said to have seen secondary explosions, indicating the presence of a large quantity of inflammable or explosive material. There was nothing left of the plant, they said.
(The French Foreign Ministry said that there was no nuclear fuel in the facility at the time of the attack. It said that the main reactor, which uses highly enriched uranium fuel suitable for atomic weapons, had been ''seriously damaged.'' A smaller French-supplied reactor in the same complex, as well a Soviet-made reactor, escaped damage, the ministry said.)


Mr. Begin said that the $275 million facility was near completion and was scheduled to go into operation within several months. After that, the official Israeli announcement stated, an attack on it would have blanketed Baghdad with radiation.

''Under such circumstances,'' the statement said, ''no government of Israel could contemplate bombing the reactor.'' U.S. Not Told in Advance

The raid was immediately condemned by the United States, which Mr. Begin said had not been notified in advance. A State Department spokesman in Washington denounced it as ''a very serious development and a source of utmost concern.'' Washington has been trying to improve relations with Baghdad.

The Iraqi press agency, which did not report the attack until after the Israeli announcement, said that nine aircraft had been involved.

American military analysts said that the bombing was apparently done by American-made F-4 Phantoms escorted by F-15's.

There were no indications of any preparations for retaliation by Iraq, which has long been technically in a state of war with Israel but is also tangled in a sputtering war with Iran.

The successful Israeli raid was expected to give a further stimulus to the campaign of Mr. Begin, who faces a close race for re-election in three weeks. His major opponent, Shimon Peres of the Labor Party, was informed of plans for the attack three months ago, Mr. Begin said, but expressed reservations about its advisability.

The reactor, known as the Osirak plant, was damaged last Sept. 30 in the second week of the Iraqi-Iranian war by unmarked jets. Iran denied being responsible for the attack, and some reports, never confirmed, attributed the raid to Israelis. The result was an interruption in work at the plant, and foreign specialists, including French, Italian and Brazilian experts, returned to continue their tasks there only several months ago.

Israel had worked on the plans for the raid for several months, Mr. Begin said. The attack was timed for a Sunday ''on the assumption that the 100 to 150 foreign experts employed at the reactor would be absent on the Christian day of rest,'' according to the announcement. ''This assumption proved to have been correct,'' it said. ''No foreign specialists were hurt.''

Although France had insisted that the reactor was intended only for research, Israel said that ''from sources whose reliability is beyond any doubt, we learned that this reactor, despite its camouflage, is designed to produce atomic bombs.

''The target for such bombs would be Israel,'' it said. ''This was clearly announced by the ruler of Iraq. After the Iranians had inflicted slight damage on the reactor, Saddam Hussein stressed that the Iranians had attacked the target in vain, since it was being constructed against Israel alone.'' First Strike Feared by Israel

A critical motivation for the Israeli attack appeared to be the conviction here that the Iraqi regime could not be deterred from a first strike with nuclear weapons, even by the rational calculation that Iraq might be similarly hit.

Israel has denied possessing nuclear weapons. But the Central Intelligence Agency released reports several years ago stating that Israel had obtained uranium ''by clandestine means,'' and concluding: ''We believe that Israel already has produced nuclear weapons.''

''There is no question,'' said Yuval Ne'eman, an Israeli physicist, ''that the existence of this reactor represented a real threat, especially to Israel but I would say also to several other countries in the Middle East.

''The removal of this threat is a good thing in itself,'' he said. ''I think that there was no other way, because with a country such as Iraq under its present leadership, you couldn't even plan for a balance of fear.

Suppose they would have reached the stage where they would have had their weapons, and suppose Israel would then have done the same. Even that would not have assured our safety because this kind of regime doesn't care even about its own people, so we would have been exposed, and there's no question that we would have been target No. 1.'' Iraqis Have Delivery System

He estimated that it would take Iraq about three years to rebuild the reactor. Before the facility was destroyed, experts believed that Iraq could have had nuclear weapons by 1985. A delivery system, in the form of Soviet-made ground-to ground missiles, is already in Baghdad's possession.

Israel obviously felt itself pushing against a deadline. ''From the most reliable sources,'' the Government statement said, ''we learned of two dates when the reactor would be completed and put into operation. One: the beginning of July 1981; two: the beginning of September 1981.

''In other words, within a short period of time the Iraqi reactor would have been operational and 'hot.' Under such circumstances, no government of Israel could contemplate bombing the reactor. Such an attack would have brought about a massive radioactive lethal fallout over the city of Baghdad, and tens of thousands of its innocent residents would have been hurt.''

Prime Minister Begin said that in that instance, ''we would have had to sit by passively from afar, knowing that the Iraqis were creating atomic bombs of the type dropped on Hiroshima in the Second World War, and three, four or five such atomic bombs in the hands of such an evil person as Saddam Hussein, who with his own hands murdered the best of his people in order to control his country, it wouldn't be beyond him to use these bombs on concentrations of our population.''

The Government statement, which was issued after news of the raid was disclosed on Radio Amman, Jordan, condemned France and Italy.

 

[Vapour]

Couldn't Pakistan have done something similar to prevent nukes being introduced into the Subcontinent?

 

[Blacklight]

@baqai Pls have a look at this thread.