In the 1970s, Iraq had tried to persuade France to sell it a nuclear reactor similar to the one used in the French weapons programme.

France had refused, but agreed to sell and to help build the 40 megawatt Osirak research reactor at the Tuwaitha nuclear centre near Baghdad.

Israel said that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons.

Fearing Iraq might eventually target Israel, then Prime Minister Menachem Begin sent several F-16s to bomb the Osirak reactor, reducing it to rubble in seconds.

The Israeli military says the raid "put the nuclear genie of Baghdad back into his bottle".

But the bombing was widely condemned at the time, even by Israel's traditional ally the US, which backed a UN resolution censuring Israel.