ISRAEL / FILE: F-16 lead pilot recalls raid on Osiraq nuclear reactor 25 years ago today

Record ID: 398114

  • Title: ISRAEL / FILE: F-16 lead pilot recalls raid on Osiraq nuclear reactor 25 years ago today
  • Date: 7th June 2006
  • Summary: (W3) ASHDOD, ISRAEL (JUNE 7, 2006) (REUTERS) RETIRED ISRAELI F-16 PILOT RAZ ZEEV AT A RESTAURANT IN ASHDOD (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 22nd June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA81HPSJX2QLRJNGI5SSK5I71KI
  • Story Text: Retired pilot Raz Zeev recalled on Wednesday (June 7) the billows of smoke rising from the Iraqi reactor at Osiraq on June 7, 1981 after he dropped a bomb from his F-16 warplane but doubts a similar tactical surprise to stop Iran's quest for an atomic bomb would ever occur.
    "At that moment the only thing you see is smoke," Zeev recalled after dropping the bomb.
    "I remember the only thing that bothered me all over the flight was finding the target and not missing it," said Zeev, who led the strike force over Osiraq. "We had good schemes of the reactor and we applied so that the fuse detonate the bomb after good penetration and to explode deep under the ground so as to destroy the core of the reactor".
    Eight Israeli F-16 jets, using detachable fuel containers and relatively light bombs to extend their range, destroyed Osiraq in Iraq exactly 25 years ago.
    Sitting at a cafe in the Israeli port city of Ashdod, near a military facility, Zeev recalled his flight over Jordan and Saudi Arabia, which were then formally at war with Israel.
    But Zeev said his real fear derived from the US-made warplanes imported to Israel, which lacked the ability to fuel in the air.
    "I was more concerned because we had to fly to climb to 4,000 feet because of fuel shortage, and it was 90 minutes, one hour and a half, flying at this altitude with no fuel reserves, extremely vulnerable although F-16s escorted us," said Zeev, who retired from the air force in 1989 and currently works as a security manufacturer in southern Israel.
    Zeev said the fuel shortage came after the pilots dumped gallons of petrol to empower their ability to strike, an act which was forbidden according to the US use instructions.
    "That was the really scary part of the flight but it past peacefully," said Zeev with a smile.
    Israel's Defence Forces file footage shows the sights and sounds during the attack from one of the cockpits of an F-16 fighter plane, provided by the United States just one year before the attack.
    Upon returning, Zeev said former airforce "General (David) Ivri did something that the commander officer never did before. He talked to us on the radio and joked and used his famous dry sense of humour and asked us to be very safe in landing the flight is not over yet and things like that, you can imagine deep relief feeling of relief".
    The mission, orchestrated by then Prime Minister Menachem Begin, drove Saddam Hussein's quest for atomic weapons underground until U.N. inspectors uncovered it in 1991.
    "We had all the available information - absolutely sure, that Saddam Hussein, the tyrant of Iraq has an ambition to develop an atomic bomb, and in that reactor Osiraq near Baghdad, an atomic bomb is being developed. That was absolutely sure information from the best and most reliable sources possible," said Begin in a television interview with CBS after the pilots returned home safely.
    "I am absolutely sure that, based on the precedent we created, any prime minister of any government of Israel will destroy that reactor before it is operational," Begin said at the time.
    Today, 25 years later, Israel, believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, has made no secret of seeking means to confront Iran militarily.
    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his country seeks nuclear energy only, but has raised worries in the West by calling for the Jewish state to be "wiped off the map".
    Israel denies planning to attack its arch-foe unilaterally but has not completely ruled out an "Osiraq attack" to prevent its arch-foe from getting the bomb should U.S.-led diplomatic pressure on Tehran fail.
    Though other military officials argued against thinking in all-out terms, Zeev ruled out the possibility of a surprise attack on Iran since the Islamic republic's facilities are too dispersed and fortified to be eliminated militarily.
    "Iran has many many points all over Iran, deep under the ground, I don't think as far as I know...I don't think it's a job for airpower, not even the U.S. airforce," said Zeev. "We can cause a lot of damage by airpower but we cannot destroy and stop the project now in Iran like we did in Iraq 25 years ago".
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