Today’s story is about a covert operation conducted by Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad and Air Force. In this operation, the Israeli Air Force bombed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear plant by fighter jets and destroyed it. However, the danger in this mission was such that those involved in the operation knew that their safe return depended largely on luck. In this attack, 10 Iraqi soldiers and a French civilian were killed.
Saddam becomes dictator and deal with France: By the late 70s, Saddam Hussein became dictator of Iraq. After assuming power, Saddam Hussein’s first dream was to make Iraq a nuclear-powered nation. In such a situation, he asked France for their help for the construction of a nuclear plant to produce electricity. Then France made the deal on the assurance that the nuclear plant would be used only for electricity generation and not for making any kind of weapons. Iraq bought an Osiris-class nuclear reactor from France and then installed it about 17 kilometers southeast of the city of Baghdad.
Operation ‘Ammunition Hill’ launch: When Israel got the news, it talked to France and America and hired its Mossad agents. That’s when Mossad spies learned that Iraq was going to receive a large shipment of uranium from France for the plant by the end of July, 1981. Israel spoke to France to stop the shipment but it dismissed doubts. Now Israel only had the option of destroying the plant. The then Prime Minister of Israel, Menachem Begin, launched the ‘Ammunition Hill’ operation, but the opposition party did not agree to this dangerous mission. In such a situation, the mission was postponed politically but Mossad continued to work internally.
When the code-name of the changed operation: the code-name of the operation was changed from ‘Ammunition Hill’ to ‘Opera’ due to security and confidentiality. As planned, the army and Mossad chose 7 June 1981, a Sunday, as the day was a holiday for French engineers at the plant. Israel did not want the French engineers to be harmed or else France would have taken deadly action on it. Then eight F-16 fighter jets and eight F-15-A jets flew to Iraq on the day of the attack.
Radar ditched and Jordan’s King sighted Fighter jet: The jet flew down to evade radar in Saudi Arabian and Jordanian airspace and in most places radar and communication systems were jammed by Israeli forces. However, when he was caught twice in Saudi and Jordanian airspace, he told Saudi ATC (Air Traffic Control) that he was a Jordanian stray. Whereas Jordan’s ATC was told as a stray ship of Saudi. In this way Israel betrayed both the radar systems.
However, King Hussein of Jordan, who was vacationing in his private boat in the Gulf of Aqaba, due to flying too low, saw these Israeli ships. They immediately sensed the danger and asked to send a message to Saddam that there was going to be an attack but the message did not reach Saddam as all communication systems were blocked. King Hussein knew that Israel had talked to many countries about this nuclear plant. They also knew that Israel and Mossad would not sit silent but would not take action so soon.
Operation finished in 1 minute 20 seconds: Under Operation Opera, a total of 16 bombs were dropped on the nuclear plant by the Israeli Air Force in 1 minute 20 seconds and the nuclear plant was completely destroyed. By the time the Iraqi Air Force could take action, all fighter planes returned safely and the Iraqi nuclear plant was completely destroyed. Later it was also learned that the security personnel present at the plant had gone to eat food shortly before the attack by turning off the radar system.