Operation Scorch Sword 1980
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 30 September 1980 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1980 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Post-1945 (1946 onwards) | derived from year |
| Location | Iraq | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Iran–Iraq War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 33.2083, 44.5250 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
Operation Scorch Sword (Persian: عَمَلیاتِ شمشیرِ سوزان) was an Iranian airstrike on Iraq's Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Centre in 1980. Conducted eight days after 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 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 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.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Operation Scorch Sword (revision 1368287007), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the Iran–Iraq War
- Battle of Khorramshahr (1980) 1980
- Siege of Abadan 1980
- H-3 airstrike 1981
- Operation Nasr 1981
- Operation Tariq al-Quds 1981
- Battle of Khorramshahr (1982) 1982
- Battle of the Marshes 1984
- First Battle of al-Faw 1986
- Siege of Basra 1987
- USS Stark incident 1987
All 11 battles of the Iran–Iraq War →
Browse more: battles in Iraq · Asia · Post-1945 battles