83-495: Iraqi invasion of Iran (1980) Stalemate (1981) Iranian offensives to free Iranian territory (1981–82) Iranian offensives in Iraq (1982–84) Iranian offensives in Iraq (1985–87) Final stages (1988) Tanker War International incidents Operation Scorch Sword ( Persian : عَمَلیاتِ شمشیرِ سوزان ) was an Iranian airstrike on Iraq's Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Centre in 1980. Conducted eight days after
166-438: A chief ally and therefore could not adequately maintain the world's fifth-largest military that it had at the time. Spare parts were hard to come by, and many Iranian aerial assets had to be cannibalized. The Israelis secretly shipped some spare parts to Iran to help their air force, though these were ultimately insufficient. Many of Iran's military pilots, officers, and leaders had also been purged (executed by firing squad) after
249-592: A crackdown to restore Saddam's control. The execution of Iraq's most senior Ayatollah, and "reports that Saddam's secret police had raped al-Sadr's sister in al-Sadr's presence, had set his beard alight, and then dispatched him with a nail gun" caused outrage throughout the Islamic world, especially among Iraqi Shias. The Shias' repeated calls for the overthrow of the Ba'ath party and the support they allegedly received from Iran's new government led Saddam to increasingly perceive Iran as
332-581: A full-scale invasion of Iran on 22 September 1980. The Iraqi Air Force launched surprise air strikes on ten Iranian airfields with the objective of destroying the Iranian Air Force , mimicking the Israeli Air Force in the Six-Day War . The attack failed to damage Iranian Air Force significantly: it damaged some of Iran's airbase infrastructure, but failed to destroy a significant number of aircraft:
415-444: A group of two or three low-flying F-4 Phantoms could hit targets almost anywhere in Iraq. Meanwhile, Iraqi air attacks on Iran were repulsed by Iran's F-14 Tomcat interceptor fighter jets, using Phoenix missiles , which downed a dozen of Iraq's Soviet-built fighters in the first two days of battle. The Iranian regular military, police forces, volunteer Basij, and Revolutionary Guards all conducted their operations separately; thus,
498-621: A high altitude in order to be detected by Iraqi radar systems, albeit on a false course. Moments later, two of them peeled off and dropped to an extremely low altitude to avoid further detection and subsequently changed course for the Iraqi nuclear facility. Executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force , this airstrike was the first such attack on a nuclear reactor and the third attack on any nuclear facility in history: Iran sought to thwart Iraq's progress in nuclear research and development due to
581-593: A large scale." Days before the Iraqi invasion and in the midst of rapidly escalating cross-border skirmishes, Iraqi military intelligence again reiterated on 14 September that "the enemy deployment organization does not indicate hostile intentions and appears to be taking on a more defensive mode." Iraq soon after expropriated the properties of 70,000 civilians believed to be of Iranian origin and expelled them from its territory. Many, if not most, of those expelled were in fact Arabic-speaking Iraqi Shias who had little to no family ties with Iran. This caused tensions between
664-459: A planned six deliveries totalling 72 kilograms. It was reportedly stipulated in the purchase agreement that no more than two HEU fuel loadings, 25 kilograms, could be in Iraq at any time. Iraq and France claimed that the Iraqi reactor was intended for peaceful scientific research. Agreements between France and Iraq excluded military use. In a 2003 speech, Richard Wilson , a professor of physics at Harvard University who visually inspected
747-620: A position as assistant professor at Harvard University where he then served as Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics. He visited the USSR in 1958. After the dissolution of the USSR helped to found the International Sakharov University in Minsk, Belarus in 1991. From 1975 he became a frequent visitor to the Arab countries and lectured in 44 different countries altogether. In 1988 he became a member of
830-685: A pretext. A successful invasion of Iran would enlarge Iraq's petroleum reserves and make Iraq the region's dominant power. With Iran engulfed in chaos, an opportunity for Iraq to annex the oil-rich Khuzestan Province materialized. In addition, Khuzestan's large ethnic Arab population would allow Saddam to pose as a liberator for Arabs from Persian rule. Fellow Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (despite being hostile to Iraq) encouraged Iraq to attack, as they feared that an Islamic revolution would take place within their own borders. Certain Iranian exiles also helped convince Saddam that if he invaded,
913-457: A risk that it was already being fuelled, increasing the possibility of radioactive fallout . In a joint plan with Israeli input, the Iranians decided that they would not target the actual reactor itself, but the research laboratories, the reactor control building, and the training facilities. The Osirak nuclear reactor was defended by a single SA-6 missile battery just over a mile (2 km) to
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#1732855632550996-630: A substantial setback for Iraq. A decade later, seven months after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait , the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Centre was struck by the United States as part of the Gulf War aerial bombardment campaign . Iraq had established a nuclear program sometime in the 1960s, and in the mid-1970s looked to expand it through the acquisition of a nuclear reactor . After failing to convince
1079-531: A threat that, if ignored, might one day overthrow him; he thus used the attacks as pretext for attacking Iran that September, though skirmishes along the Iran–Iraq border had already become a daily event by May that year. Despite Iran's bellicose rhetoric, Iraqi military intelligence reported in July 1980 that "it is clear that, at present, Iran has no power to launch wide offensive operations against Iraq, or to defend on
1162-519: A weakened Iran's consolidation of the Islamic Revolution , forcibly reclaimed territories in Zain al-Qaws and Saïf Saad ; these had been promised to Iraq under the terms of the 1975 Algiers Agreement , but were never actually transferred. Both Iran and Iraq later declared the treaty as null and void, doing so on 14 September and 17 September, respectively. As a result, the only outstanding dispute along
1245-457: A whole. The Iraqi government sought to take control of the entire Shatt al-Arab in a rapid and decisive military campaign, believing that Iraq's victory in the broader conflict would humiliate Iran and lead to Khomeini's downfall, or, at the very least, thwart the new Iranian government's attempts to spread Khomeinism throughout the Muslim world . Saddam had also aspired to annex Khuzestan and saw
1328-520: Is our best friend and we don't intend to change our position." When the Iran–Iraq War broke out, the Iranians became increasingly concerned that the Iraqis were developing nuclear weapons to use against them. Before the war, Iran had a contingency plan to attack the plant. However, course of action was met with difficulties in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution , as Iran had lost the United States as
1411-518: Is particularly known for his visits to Chernobyl, being the first American scientist to go to the plant, and measure radioactivity levels thereby exposing himself to the dangers. He expanded his interests to other hazards, and thereby helped to found the field of risk analysis . His paper "The Daily Risks of Life" was reprinted in Reader's Digest and the Farmers' Almanac . In the same year his testimony about
1494-558: The French government to sell them a plutonium-producing reactor and reprocessing plant, and likewise failing to convince the Italian government to sell them a CIRENE -style reactor, the Iraqi government convinced the French government to sell them an Osiris-class research reactor . The purchase also included a smaller accompanying Isis-type reactor, the sale of 72 kilograms of 93% enriched uranium and
1577-535: The Iran–Iraq War , and lasted until 5 December 1980. Ba'athist Iraq believed that Iran would not respond effectively due to internal socio-political turmoil caused by the country's Islamic Revolution one year earlier. However, Iraqi troops faced fierce Iranian resistance, which stalled their advance into western Iran . In two months, the invasion came to a halt after Iraq occupied more than 25,900 square kilometres (10,000 sq mi) of Iranian territory. On 10 September 1980, Iraq, hoping to take advantage of
1660-465: The Iran–Iraq War , fearing the possibility of any potential Iraqi nuclear weapons being used on Iranian soil in the future. Ultimately, the damage inflicted by Iran during Scorch Sword was not absolute and only halted Iraq's nuclear efforts for around three months. However, a second airstrike conducted by Israel on 7 June 1981, codenamed Operation Opera , completely destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in
1743-499: The Iran–Iraq border at the time of the Iraqi invasion on 22 September was the question of whether Iranian ships would fly Iraqi flags and pay navigation fees to Iraq while sailing through a stretch of the Shatt al-Arab spanning several kilometres. On 22 September, Iraqi aircraft pre-emptively bombarded ten Iranian airfields in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to gain aerial superiority on
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#17328556325501826-508: The Iraqis and Arabs everywhere, we tell those Persian cowards and dwarfs who try to avenge al-Qadisiyah that the spirit of al-Qadisiyah as well as the blood and honor of the people of al-Qadisiyah who carried the message on their spearheads are greater than their attempts. In 1979–1980, anti-Ba'ath riots arose in the Iraq's Shia areas by groups who were working toward an Islamic revolution in their country. Saddam and his deputies believed that
1909-615: The Islamic Dawa Party a capital offense at the end of March, Shia militants assassinated 20 Ba'ath officials, and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz was almost assassinated on 1 April; Aziz survived, but 11 students were killed in the attack. Three days later, the funeral procession being held to bury the students was bombed. Iraqi Information Minister Latif Nusseif al-Jasim also barely survived assassination by Shia militants. In April 1980, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister Amina al-Sadr were executed as part of
1992-520: The Muslim conquest of Persia while promoting his country's position against Iran in the context of a looming war. On 2 April 1980, during a visit to al-Mustansiriya University in the city of Baghdad , he drew parallels to the 7th-century Battle of al-Qadisiyyah , in which the Rashidun Caliphate secured a decisive victory over the Sasanian Empire : In your name, brothers, and on behalf of
2075-438: The Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad. By 1 October, Baghdad had been subjected to eight air attacks. In response, Iraq launched aerial strikes against Iranian targets. The people of Iran, rather than turning against their still-weak Islamic Republic, rallied around their country. An estimated 200,000 fresh troops had arrived at the front by November, many of them ideologically committed volunteers. Though Khorramshahr
2158-694: The pan-Arabism espoused by Iraq's Ba'athists. Saddam's primary interest in war may have stemmed from his desire to right the supposed "wrong" of the Algiers Agreement , in addition to finally achieving his desire of annexing Khuzestan and becoming the regional superpower. Saddam's goal was to replace Egypt as the "leader of the Arab world" and to achieve hegemony over the Persian Gulf. He saw Iran's increased weakness due to revolution, sanctions, and international isolation. Saddam had invested heavily in Iraq's military, buying large amounts of weaponry from
2241-438: The 1975 Algiers Agreement null and void... This river [Shatt al-Arab]...must have its Iraqi-Arab identity restored as it was throughout history in name and in reality with all the disposal rights emanating from full sovereignty over the river...We in no way wish to launch war against Iran. Despite Saddam's claim that Iraq did not want war with Iran, the next day his forces proceeded to attack Iranian border posts in preparation for
2324-643: The American private intelligence agency Stratfor wrote in 2007 that the uranium-fueled reactor "was believed to be on the verge of producing plutonium for a weapons program". Iraq was a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , placing its reactors under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. In October 1981, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists published excerpts from
2407-709: The Arab revolts, the Revolutionary Guards would be drawn out of Tehran, leading to a counter-revolution in Iran that would cause Khomeini's government to collapse and thus ensure Iraqi victory. However, rather than turning against the revolutionary government as experts had predicted, Iran's people (including Iranian Arabs) rallied in support of the country and put up a stiff resistance. By September, skirmishes between Iran and Iraq were increasing in number. Iraq began to grow bolder, both shelling and launching border incursions into disputed territories . Malovany describes
2490-485: The Iraqi Air Force was only able to strike in depth with a few MiG-23BN , Tu-22 , and Su-20 aircraft. Three MiG-23s managed to attack Tehran, striking its airport , but destroyed only a few aircraft. The next day, Iraq launched a ground invasion along a front measuring 644 km (400 mi) in three simultaneous attacks. Of Iraq's six divisions that were invading by ground, four were sent to Khuzestan, which
2573-504: The Iraqi Army had "liberated" all disputed territories within Iran. It should be carefully noted that Malovany, an Israeli ex-intelligence analyst writing years later, said the enclaves were not completely seized until 21 September. With the conclusion of the "liberating operations", on 17 September, in a statement addressed to Iraq's parliament, Saddam stated: The frequent and blatant Iranian violations of Iraqi sovereignty...have rendered
Operation Scorch Sword - Misplaced Pages Continue
2656-560: The Iraqi Army's seizure of the Zayn al-Qaws enclave, near Khanaqin (by 6th Armoured Division , 2nd Corps); the Saif Sa'ad enclave ( 10th Armoured Division ) and the Maysan enclave between Shib and Fakkeh ( 1st Mechanised Division , 3rd Corps). Iran responded by shelling several Iraqi border towns and posts, though this did little to alter the situation on the ground. By 10 September, Saddam declared that
2739-615: The Iraqi Roland. Instead the Iranians had to fly low over the target, and move at high speed and get out quickly; due to this the mission was to be carried out by Iran's most skilled pilots. The major problem was the lack of intelligence- due to the break-down in relations with the US, the IRIAF had no new satellite photographs of the building site, nor were there any new pictures taken from the ground. Israeli and Syrian intelligence agencies both reported that
2822-599: The Iraqi invading forces did not face coordinated resistance. However, on 24 September, the Iranian Navy attacked Basra, Iraq , destroying two oil terminals near the Iraqi port Faw , which reduced Iraq's ability to export oil. The Iranian ground forces (primarily consisting of the Revolutionary Guard) retreated to the cities, where they set up defences against the invaders. On 30 September, Iran's air force launched Operation Scorch Sword , striking and badly damaging
2905-718: The Iraqi nuclear program. This final blow, would came up on June 7, 1981, in the Operation Opera , almost nine months after this Iranian operation. Iraqi invasion of Iran lraqi short-term operational success [REDACTED] Iranian Armed Forces [REDACTED] Iraqi Armed Forces Iraqi invasion of Iran (1980) Stalemate (1981) Iranian offensives to free Iranian territory (1981–82) Iranian offensives in Iraq (1982–84) Iranian offensives in Iraq (1985–87) Final stages (1988) Tanker War International incidents The Iraqi invasion of Iran began on 22 September 1980, sparking
2988-830: The Iraqis were repelled. On 14 October, the Iraqis launched a second offensive. The Iranians launched a controlled withdrawal from the city, street by street. By 24 October, most of the city was captured, and the Iranians evacuated across the Karun River . Some partisans remained, and fighting continued until 10 November. Though the Iraqi air invasion surprised the Iranians, the Iranian air force retaliated with an attack against Iraqi military bases and infrastructure in Operation Kaman 99 ( Bow 99). Groups of F-4 Phantom and F-5 Tiger fighter jets attacked targets throughout Iraq, such as oil facilities, dams, petrochemical plants, and oil refineries, and included Mosul Airbase , Baghdad , and
3071-451: The Islamic Revolution as an opportunity to do so, seeking to increase his country's prestige and power in the Arab world. To this end, his administration hoped that Iraq, as an Arab-majority country, could successfully exploit Arab separatism in Khuzestan to undermine Iran from within. In practice, these objectives failed to materialize and the majority of Iranian Arabs were indifferent to
3154-406: The Islamic Revolution. Furthermore, the Iranians no longer had the benefit of a surprise attack initiative due to the Iraqi invasion of Iran , nor did they have access to American spy satellite footage to assess the facility's layout. The IRIAF (under Javad Fakoori ) began to plan out an entirely new plan to attack Osirak . The Iranians had little intelligence about the plant, and there was even
3237-520: The Kirkuk oil refinery. Iraq was taken by surprise at the strength of the retaliation, as Iran took few losses while the Iraqis took heavy defeats and economic disruption. The Iranian force of AH-1J SeaCobra helicopter gunships began attacks on the advancing Iraqi divisions, along with F-4 Phantoms armed with Maverick missiles ; they destroyed numerous armoured vehicles and impeded the Iraqi advance, though not completely halting it. Iran had discovered that
3320-549: The Middle East. Eklund claimed that the safeguards procedures were effective and that they were supplemented by precautionary measures taken by the nuclear suppliers. Anthony Fainberg, a physicist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory , disputed Richter's claim that a fuel processing program for the manufacturing of nuclear weapons could have been conducted secretly. Fainberg wrote that there was barely enough fuel on
3403-605: The Science Advisory Board of the Atlantic Legal Foundation, a public interest law foundation. He and his wife had 6 children. He died in May 2018 at the age of 92. Wilson's first research was on the properties of the nucleon . He started by using radioactive sources and then using first the cyclotron at AERE, Harwell , UK then the cyclotron at Harvard University, USA. This work is described in many papers and in
Operation Scorch Sword - Misplaced Pages Continue
3486-512: The September 30 attack on Tuwaitha was carried out by "two unidentified Israeli Phantoms" or aircraft with Iranian markings flown by Israel. Israel emphatically denied all such allegations, pointing to the fact that such an operation would be almost impossible to carry out with their F-4s. In order to confirm the results of the raid, on 30 November 1980, one F-4 Phantom took off from Hamadan in a recon mission over Tuwaitha, in order to gather pictures of
3569-481: The Soviet Union and France. Between 1973 and 1980 alone, Iraq purchased an estimated 1,600 tanks and APCs and over 200 Soviet-made aircraft. By 1980, Iraq possessed 242,000 soldiers (second only to Egypt in the Arab world), 2,350 tanks and 340 combat aircraft. Watching the powerful Iranian army that frustrated him in 1974–1975 disintegrate, he saw an opportunity to attack, using the threat of Islamic Revolution as
3652-543: The attacked reactor. Flying at low level, the Phantom made a single pass over Osirak, taking the desired pictures. Despite being fired at by several Iraqi AAA and SAM sites, the RF-4E Phantom avoided them and returned safely into Iran. Later on, and once analysed the classified pictures, these confirmed that the attack was successful, presenting the damaged infrastructure of the nuclear complex. Despite rumors and cover-up attempts,
3735-496: The battlefield. On the next day, Iraqi troops crossed the international border in strength and advanced into Iran in three simultaneous thrusts along a front of approximately 644 kilometres (400 mi). Of Iraq's six divisions that were invading by land, four were sent to Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan in order to cut off Iranian access to the Shatt al-Arab and establish a territorial security zone. Iraqi president Saddam Hussein presented
3818-475: The beginning of the Iraqi invasion of Iran , it was a surprise attack against the under-construction Osirak nuclear reactor , which was located 17 kilometres (11 miles) to the southeast of Baghdad and was widely perceived as a major asset for the then-ongoing Iraqi nuclear program . At dawn on 30 September, four Iranian F-4 Phantom IIs completed an aerial refueling near the Iran–Iraq border before flying into Iraqi airspace, where they deliberately climbed to
3901-567: The bombing of the Iraqi Osirak reactor delayed Iraq's nuclear bomb program. But the Iraqi nuclear program before 1981 was peaceful, and the Osirak reactor was not only unsuited to making bombs but was under intensive safeguards. In an interview in 2012, Wilson again emphasised: "The Iraqis couldn't have been developing a nuclear weapon at Osirak. I challenge any scientist in the world to show me how they could have done so." Contrary to Wilson's opinion,
3984-606: The book "The Nucleon-Nucleon Interaction" (Wiley-Interscience) in 1963. At Harvard he became an enthusiastic supporter of the Cambridge Electron Accelerator (CEA) and was Chairman of the Management committee from 1961 to 1968. He became known for his work on nucleon form factors, an interest which continues. He was a Trustee of the Universities Research Association from 1987 to 1993, and studied
4067-559: The central front, the Iraqis occupied Mehran , advanced towards the foothills of the Zagros Mountains , and were able to block the traditional Tehran–Baghdad invasion route by securing territory forward of Qasr-e Shirin, Iran . Two of the four Iraqi divisions which invaded Khuzestan, one mechanised and one armoured, operated near the southern end and began a siege of the strategically important port cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr . The other two divisions, both armoured, secured
4150-443: The end of 1980, Iraq had destroyed about 500 Western -built Iranian tanks and captured 100 others. Richard Wilson (physicist) Richard Wilson (29 April 1926 – 19 May 2018) was a British-American physicist . His original fields were nuclear and elementary particle physics but branched out into applications of physics in other disciplines. Most of his career he has been a physics professor at Harvard University . Wilson
4233-459: The enemy early-warning radars would paint it just long enough for the Iraqis to think they had fixed the direction in which the Iranians were heading. Moments later, the group dropped back to a very low level, where the Iraqis were no longer able to track. Then, the group parted ways, the leading pair continued in the same direction as before, towards a powerplant just south of Baghdad, while the other two Phantoms diverted for Tuwaitha, further west. As
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#17328556325504316-453: The facts clearly present a successful airstrike, that was successful in achieving its main aim of delaying and damaging the Iraqi nuclear program. The results and the experiences achieved by the IRIAF in this operation, proved crucial for another country, Israel. Just as concerned as Iran with the Iraqi nuclear program, the IRIAF operation proved useful for the IAF in order to prepare the final blow to
4399-593: The fighting around Susangerd. On 22 September, a prolonged battle began in the city of Khorramshahr, eventually leaving 7,000 dead on each side. Reflecting the bloody nature of the struggle, Iranians came to call Khorramshahr "City of Blood" ( خونین شهر , Khunin shahr ). The battle began with Iraqi air raids against key points and mechanised divisions advancing on the city in a crescent-like formation. They were slowed by Iranian air attacks and Revolutionary Guard troops with recoilless rifles , rocket-propelled grenades , and Molotov cocktails . The Iranians flooded
4482-456: The fledgling Islamic republic would quickly collapse. In particular, Saddam was assured of Saudi support for an invasion of Iran during his August 1980 visit to Saudi Arabia. In 1979–1980, Iraq was the beneficiary of an oil boom that saw it take in US$ 33 ;billion, which allowed the government to invest heavily in both civilian and military projects. On several occasions, Saddam alluded to
4565-489: The formation first approached the Iraqi border in order to meet a Boeing 707 -3J9C tanker , escorted by a pair of F-14 Tomcats , in order to refuel mid air. Each Phantom was armed with six Mk.82 GP bombs , two AIM-7E-2 Sparrow air-to-air missiles , and a full load of 20mm ammunition for the M-61A1 Vulcan cannon . After crossing into Iraq in a very low altitude, the formation, led by a colonel, climbed to gain altitude, so
4648-577: The inelastic form factors. Wilson was an early proponent of electron-positron colliding beams. and worked thereon in Frascati , CEA and Cornell University . In 1991 he realised that the general public was no longer automatically supporting physicists and began a career explaining the positive aspects of radiation use, as well as its risks and dangers. In this he used the "hands on" style of an experimental physicist and soon became an expert on nuclear accidents: Three Mile Island , Chernobyl & Fukushima . He
4731-462: The invasion as a strategically defensive measure to blunt the edge of Iranian politician Ruhollah Khomeini , who had risen to power as Iran's " Supreme Leader " and was attempting to export the Islamic Revolution to the Arab world . Saddam, as a secularist and an Arab nationalist , perceived Iran's Shia Islamism as an immediate and existential threat to his Ba'ath Party and thereby to Iraqi society as
4814-487: The last two F-4 Phantoms approached the Tammuz building site, they remained in a very low altitude, pulling up again at the last moment, barely at 2.4 miles (4 km) from the target, and then remained there for a brief period. To the surprise of the pilots, the Iraqis did not even fire a single missile or shell at them. Approaching on a direct route and executing a perfect attack, the Iranians swiftly sighted their targets east of
4897-425: The marsh areas around the city, forcing the Iraqis to traverse through narrow strips of land. Iraqi tanks launched attacks with no infantry support, and many tanks were lost to Iranian anti-tank teams. However, by 30 September, the Iraqis had managed to clear the Iranians from the outskirts of the city. The next day, the Iraqis launched infantry and armoured attacks into the city. After heavy house-to-house fighting ,
4980-498: The name of Iraq with that of the reactor class. Iraq named the main reactor Tammuz 1 (Arabic: تموز) and the smaller Tammuz 2 . Tammuz was the Babylonian month when the Ba'ath party had come to power in 1968. In July 1980, Iraq received from France a shipment of approximately 12.5 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to be used in the reactor. The shipment was the first of
5063-540: The other installations in the complex, such as the cooling pumps, the labs and other support facilities. There was controversy over the results of the Operation Scorch Sword. In the West, the strike was viewed as having caused only "minor damage", the same opinion expressed by the Iraqis. However, soon it turned evident that the strike was clearly successful in disrupting the Iraqi nuclear program, both physically through
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#17328556325505146-617: The partially damaged reactor in December 1982, said that "to collect enough plutonium [for a nuclear weapon] using Osirak would've taken decades, not years". In 2005, Wilson further commented in The Atlantic : the Osirak reactor that was bombed by Israel in June of 1981 was explicitly designed by the French engineer Yves Girard to be unsuitable for making bombs. That was obvious to me on my 1982 visit. Elsewhere Wilson has stated that: Many claim that
5229-426: The planned invasion. Iraq's 7th Mechanised and 4th Infantry Divisions attacked the Iranian border posts leading to the cities of Fakkeh and Bostan , opening the route for future armoured thrusts into Iran. Weakened by internal chaos, Iran was unable to repel the attacks; which in turn led to Iraq becoming more confident in its military edge over Iran and prompting them to believe in a quick victory. Iraq launched
5312-442: The reactor (to the point that their relations with France , the builder of the reactor, suffered). Despite official hostility between Khomeini and his allies with Israel and anti-Israeli rhetoric , certain elements of the Iranian and Israeli government sometimes continued to help each other clandestinely because they had a common enemy in the Arab countries . Even as late as 1987, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin stated: "Iran
5395-402: The reactor buildings, rolled out and released their 12 Mk.82 bombs, remaining in the air over the target for only six seconds. Simultaneously, the two other Phantoms hit their target, taking out the power supply to Baghdad for the next two days. Witnesses reported that at least two Iranian bombs clearly impacted the reactor itself, while the other bombs triggered a voluminous blaze that damaged all
5478-497: The riots had been inspired by the Iranian Revolution and instigated by Iran's government. On 10 March 1980, when Iraq declared Iran's ambassador persona non-grata , and demanded his withdrawal from Iraq by 15 March, Iran replied by downgrading its diplomatic ties to the charge d'affaires level, and demanded that Iraq withdraw their ambassador from Iran. In April 1980, in response to the Ba'ath Party declaring membership in
5561-463: The risks of benzene was quoted by the US Supreme Court. In this work he realised that while it is interesting what scientists say in their conferences; the US public is more concerned about of what Congress enacts in response but most importantly what the courts said last week. This realisation has led to an activity on emphasising, to the courts the fundamental thinking of a physicist. This includes
5644-409: The role of expert witnesses in court cases. Wilson is the author of 935 published articles and papers in particle physics and (nuclear) risk assessment. His writings have appeared in various scientific journals, including Nature and Science . They are listed on his webpage: http://physics.harvard.edu/~wilson/publications/published_papers.html from which site many may be downloaded. He also
5727-537: The site to make one bomb, and that the presence of hundreds of foreign technicians would have made it impossible for the Iraqis to take the necessary steps without being discovered. Iran and Israel , for years prior to the Islamic Revolution , had been monitoring the Osirak nuclear reactor and other potential sites of concern in Iraq . After the Islamic Revolution, the new Islamic Republic heightened surveillance of
5810-532: The southeast of the site, three Roland-2 missile batteries mounted in a triangle some 1600 ft (500m) around the reactor, and 40 anti-aircraft artillery positions ( 23 mm and 57 mm radar guided guns). Due to US sanctions, the Iranian F-4 Phantom fighter-bombers were only able to disrupt the SA-6 (as they were American jammer pods) and were not able to get electronic countermeasure pods to jam
5893-408: The southern portion of the country. When Iraq laid siege to Abadan and dug its troops in around the city, it was unable to blockade the port, which allowed Iran to resupply Abadan by sea. Iraq's strategic reserves had been depleted, and by now it lacked the power to go on any major offensives until nearly the end of the war. On 7 December, Hussein announced that Iraq was going on the defensive. By
5976-487: The strike, and also psychologically, as the Iraqis immediately denounced Iran for "its cooperation with the Zionist enemy ", suspecting, together with the French, that the aircraft did not come from Iran but from Israel. Saddam Hussein personally stated that Israeli aircraft had already flown over Iraq, including delivering a strike against Baghdad on 27 July 1980. The French intelligence services later on, falsely reported that
6059-447: The territory bounded by the cities of Khorramshahr , Ahvaz , Susangerd , and Musian . Iraqi hopes of an uprising by the ethnic Arabs of Khuzestan failed to materialise, as most of the ethnic Arabs remained loyal to Iran. The Iraqi troops advancing into Iran in 1980 were described by Patrick Brogan as "badly led and lacking in offensive spirit". The first known chemical weapons attack by Iraq on Iran probably took place during
6142-574: The testimony of Roger Richter, a former IAEA inspector who described the weaknesses of the agency's nuclear safeguards to the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations . Richter testified that only part of Iraq's nuclear installation was under safeguard and that the most sensitive facilities were not even subject to safeguards. IAEA's Director-General Sigvard Eklund issued a rebuttal saying that Richter had never inspected Osirak and had never been assigned to inspect facilities in
6225-484: The training of personnel. The total cost has been given as $ 300 million. In November 1975 the countries signed a nuclear cooperation agreement and in 1976 the sale of the reactor was finalized. Construction for the 40- megawatt light-water nuclear reactor began in 1979 at the Al Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Facility , near Baghdad. The main reactor was dubbed Osirak (Osiraq) by the French, blending
6308-540: The two nations to increase further. Iraq also helped to instigate riots among Iranian Arabs in Khuzestan province, supporting them in their labor disputes, and turning uprisings into armed battles between Iran's Revolutionary Guards and militants, killing over 100 on both sides. At times, Iraq also supported armed rebellion by the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran in Kurdistan. The most notable of such events
6391-451: The work on the reactors was advancing, but in the final days before the mission, some doubts surfaced over whether the reactor was finally fueled. The Iranians could not risk causing a nuclear fall-out over Baghdad. As September 30 dawned, four F-4 Phantoms of the 33rd Tactical Fighter Squadron, took off from the Nojeh TAB 3, at Kaboodar Ahang, near Hamadan . Flying on a southwesterly course,
6474-432: Was awarded a Research Lectureship at Christ Church from 1949 to 1954. On leave from this lectureship he visited America on a Guggenheim fellowship in 1950 – 1952, firstly at Rochester New York, then at Stanford University , California. While at Stanford he married Andree Desiree Dumond, daughter of the physicist Jesse Dumond of California Institute of Technology . He returned to Oxford in 1952 for 3 years before taking up
6557-620: Was born in Putney, London, on 29 April 1926 to Dorothy Jennett Kingston, a teacher of French, and Percy Wilson a civil servant in the Board of Education, who had been a Naval officer in World War I. He went to Colet Court school in Hammersmith, a preparatory School for St Paul's School, and then to St Paul's School from 1939 to 1943. He earned a BA in 1946 at Christ Church Oxford, and an MA and D Phil in 1949. He
6640-401: Was finally captured, the battle had delayed the Iraqis enough to allow the large-scale deployment of the Iranian military. In November, Saddam ordered his forces to advance towards Dezful and Ahvaz, and lay siege to both cities. However, the Iraqi offensive had been badly damaged by Iranian militias and air power. Iran's air force had destroyed Iraq's army supply depots and fuel supplies, and
6723-480: Was located near the border's southern end, to cut off the Shatt al-Arab from the rest of Iran and to establish a territorial security zone. The other two divisions invaded across the northern and central part of the border to prevent an Iranian counter-attack. On the northern front, the Iraqis attempted to establish a strong defensive position opposite Sulaymaniyah to protect the Iraqi Kirkuk oil complex . On
6806-408: Was strangling the country through an aerial siege. On the other hand, Iran's supplies had not been exhausted, despite sanctions, and the military often cannibalised spare parts from other equipment and began searching for parts on the black market. On 28 November, Iran launched Operation Morvarid (Pearl), a combined air and sea attack that destroyed 80% of Iraq's navy and all of its radar sites in
6889-599: Was the Iranian Embassy siege in London, in which six armed Khuzestani Arab insurgents took the Iranian Embassy's staff as hostages, resulting in an armed siege that was finally ended by Britain's Special Air Service . A 2014 academic source confirms that the embassy attackers were "recruited and trained" by the Iraqi government. According to former Iraqi general Ra'ad al-Hamdani , the Iraqis believed that in addition to
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