Israel believed that if Iraq acquired nuclear weapons, its own destruction would be inevitable. "Operation Opera": The Israeli air force's attack on Iraq's nuclear facility. The Israelis stunned the world with the powerful strike of their first F-16 jets.
On Sunday, June 7, 1981, Israel attacked the Al-Tuwaythah Nuclear Research Center near Baghdad, Iraq. Operation Opera, also known as Operation Babylon, was a surprise airstrike carried out by the Israeli Air Force on June 7, 1981, which destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor.
The Israeli attack came one year after the Iranian Islamic Republic Air Force had caused severe damage to Iraq's nuclear program during Operation Scorch Sword. Iraq later repaired that damage with the collaboration of France.
Operation Opera, and subsequent Israeli government statements, established the doctrine that Israel would not permit any other country in the Middle East to possess nuclear weapons, as it would pose a threat to its security.
As early as 1976, France had begun assisting Saddam Hussein's Iraq in its efforts to build a nuclear reactor.
In 1976, Iraq signed an agreement with France that promised Iraq two nuclear reactors named Tamuz 1 and Tamuz 2. This posed a threat to Israel, and it was clear to Israel that it must eliminate these nuclear facilities.
Israeli jets took off from Etzion Airbase in Israel without any radio communication, flew 1,100 kilometers, and destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, with each fighter jet dropping bombs.
Operation Opera was declared a success, and all pilots returned safely to Israel. The raid helped prevent the Iraqi regime from obtaining a nuclear deterrent.
Israeli diplomat Yehuda Zvi Blum, in a statement to the UN Security Council after the attack, claimed the operation was launched on a Sunday afternoon on the assumption that the personnel at the site, including foreign experts working at the facility, would have left. Despite this caution, hundreds of French and Iraqi workers were present at the facility during the attack.
Ten Iraqi soldiers and one civilian were killed in the attack. The civilian killed was a 25-year-old French engineer, Damien Chaussepied, an employee of Air Liquide and the French government agency CEA. In 1981, Israel agreed to pay compensation to Chaussepied's family.