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The History Hour: When Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor

Discussion & Talk

12/06/2021 GMT

When Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor

BBC World Service - The History Hour, When Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor

The 1981 attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor, plus the fall of Madrid & Gaza elections

A witness to the Israeli attack on the Osirak reactor in June 1981, testimony from the fall of Madrid in 1939, Hamas' unexpected election win and Tunisia's legal sex workers.

On 7 June 1981 Israeli fighter jets launched a surprise attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor located outside Baghdad, killing 11 people. The French-built reactor was still under construction and there was no leakage of nuclear material, but the bombing was widely condemned internationally. We hear from Dr Fadhil Muslim al Janabi, a former consultant for Iraq's nuclear agency. Also this week, eye-witness testimony to the fall of Madrid in 1939; Hamas' unexpected election victoryin 2006, the plight of legal sex workers in Tunisia and taking part in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem at the consecration of Coventry's new cathedral.

Photo: The Tammuz light-water nuclear materials testing reactor under construction in Al-Tuwaitha, just outside of Baghdad, 1979. (Getty Images)

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