Operation Wrath of God The Secret History of European Intelligence and Mossad's Assassination Campaign
Book contents
- Operation Wrath of God
- Operation Wrath of God
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Timeline of Main Events
- Acronyms
- Introduction: Intelligence that Kills
- Part I Preparing for God’s Wrath
- Part II Europe’s Covert War against the Palestinian Armed Struggle
- 3 A Firing Squad in Rome and Four Black September Attacks
- 4 A Bomb in Paris and Two Attacks in Bangkok and Rome
- 5 Assassinations in Nicosia and Madrid, Attacks in Jordan and Sudan
- 6 A ‘Battle of the Spooks’ in Paris, Beirut, Nicosia, and Rome
- 7 A Car Bomb in Paris, a Firing Squad in DC, a Thwarted Attack near Vienna
- Part III Blunder and Cooperate
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Assassinations in Nicosia and Madrid, Attacks in Jordan and Sudan
from Part II - Europe’s Covert War against the Palestinian Armed Struggle
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 August 2025
Book contents
- Operation Wrath of God
- Operation Wrath of God
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Timeline of Main Events
- Acronyms
- Introduction: Intelligence that Kills
- Part I Preparing for God’s Wrath
- Part II Europe’s Covert War against the Palestinian Armed Struggle
- 3 A Firing Squad in Rome and Four Black September Attacks
- 4 A Bomb in Paris and Two Attacks in Bangkok and Rome
- 5 Assassinations in Nicosia and Madrid, Attacks in Jordan and Sudan
- 6 A ‘Battle of the Spooks’ in Paris, Beirut, Nicosia, and Rome
- 7 A Car Bomb in Paris, a Firing Squad in DC, a Thwarted Attack near Vienna
- Part III Blunder and Cooperate
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Shortly before midnight on 22 January 1973, Hussain Abu-Khair, the recently appointed PLO representative in Cyprus, went to sleep in his hotel room. Minutes after he turned off the light, six small bombs underneath his bed were activated remotely and ripped him to pieces. Chapter 5 analyses intelligence exchanges regarding this assassination. The chapter also discusses how Black September retaliated, especially its coup of killing a Mossad officer, Baruch Cohen, in Madrid. Intelligence agencies were further reporting about terrorist activities in Jordan and about Libya’s offer to sponsor Palestinian terrorist attacks. Comparing these reports with what is known about terrorist plans at the time, the agencies were often quite accurate in their assessments. While the agencies were tracking Palestinian-Libyan connections, Black September struck another unexpected extra-European location: the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan. This chapter also discusses an interesting case where Club de Berne cooperation thwarted an attack against the Jordanian and Israeli embassies in Paris.
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- Operation Wrath of GodThe Secret History of European Intelligence and Mossad's Assassination Campaign, pp. 111 - 147Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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