1979 the Mossad was believed responsible for two explosions at a
construction yard in Seine-sur-Mer, France. Two research reactor
cores destined for Iraq were badly damaged.
In June 1980 Dr. Yahya Meshed was assassinated in Paris, where
he was negotiating a contract for Iraq to take over Iran’s share of the
French Eurodif enrichment plant. Even earlier, in 1978, unknown at-
tackers had tried to kill him when he was a technical liaison officer
with France for the export of the Osiris research reactor.
Israel’s most famous act of sabotage is the bombing of the Tam-
muz-1 research reactor at the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center near
Baghdad. On 7 June 1981, Israeli aircraft bombed and destroyed the
70-MW reactor completely in the Opera Operation. According to
Israel, Iraq was about to start producing plutonium in the reactor for
the manufacture of a nuclear weapon.
Recently, concerns have been expressed that Israel considered
bombing Iranian nuclear facilities, where Iran is continuing its con-
struction with the help of Russia.– O –
ÖCALAN’S CAPTURE. Abdullah Öcalan was born in 1948 in
Ömerli, a village in the Halfeti district in Ufra province in southeast
Turkey. He studied political science at Ankara University. After com-
pleting his studies, he entered the civil service at Diyarbakir. Öcalan
was influenced by the situation of the Kurdish people, who, he be-
lieved, were denied by the Turkish state the right to live according to
their own cultural identity. He became an active member of the Dem-
ocratic Cultural Association of the East, a group promoting the rights
of the Kurdish people. In 1984 the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK)
began to launch attacks against the governments in Iraq, Iran, Syria,
and Turkey with the goal of creating an independent Kurdish state.
Approximately 30,000 people died as a result of the conflict between
the Turkish state and the PKK. Öcalan was considered a terrorist by
the Turkish government.
Until 1998 Syria harbored Öcalan. As the situation in Turkey dete-
riorated, the Turkish government openly threatened Syria not to sup-
port the PKK. As a result, the Syrian government forced Öcalan to220 • ÖCALAN’S CAPTURE06-102 (03) H-P.qxd 3/24/06 7:25 AM Page 220