The Israeli Air Force attacked a nuclear reactor under the assumption that it was about to start producing plutonium to further an Iraqi nuclear-weapons program.

Israeli Air Force

Aerial and space service branch of the Israel Defense Forces

The Israeli Air Force operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence. As of April 2022, Aluf Tomer Bar has been serving as the Air Force commander.

Operation Opera

1981 Israeli airstrike on an Iraqi nuclear reactor

Operation Opera, also known as Operation Babylon, was a surprise airstrike conducted by the Israeli Air Force on 7 June 1981, which destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor located 17 kilometres southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. The Israeli operation came a year after the Islamic…

Plutonium

Chemical element with atomic number 94 (Pu)

Plutonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It was initially discovered and named Hesperium by Enrico Fermi in 1934. It is a silvery-gray actinide metal that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally…

Iraq and weapons of mass destruction

Iraq actively researched weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and used chemical weapons from 1962 to 1991, after which it destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile and halted its biological and nuclear weapon programs as required by the United Nations Security Council. Iraqi…