Playing God: Mossad’s Murder of Achmed Bouchiki
European intelligence agencies assisted Mossad’s Wrath of God assassination campaign, while their governments condemned them.
On the evening of 21 July 1973, in the quiet Norwegian town of Lillehammer, a couple walked home from the cinema. The woman was seven months pregnant and was walking slowly when a grey Volvo stopped nearby. Two hitmen from Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence agency, emerged and shot the man in the torso and head before leaving as quickly as they had come.
The man killed that night was Achmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan waiter and cleaner, who – apart from looking similar to the alleged terrorist Ali Hassan Salameh – had nothing to do with Middle Eastern terrorism. Mossad initially thought that they had achieved a major success as part of ‘Operation Wrath of God’, a retribution campaign initiated by the Israeli government in reaction to the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre, in which members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September abducted and then killed 11 Israeli athletes. But instead of killing the alleged mastermind behind the Munich attack, they had committed one of Mossad’s worst blunders, embarrassing the agency for years to come and triggering an international crisis known as the Lillehammer affair.
To continue reading this article you need to purchase a subscription, available from only £5.
Start my trial subscription now
If you have already purchased access, or are a print & archive subscriber, please ensure you are logged in.
Please email digital@historytoday.com if you have any problems.
