Operation Opera - Israel Airstrike on Iraq Nuclear Reactor 1981

Operation Opera, also known as Operation Babylon and Raid on the Reactor, 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, 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 th