New Delhi: India recently celebrated the second anniversary of the surgical strikes against Pakistan conducted in September 2016. This was one of the biggest strikes carried out against the terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and destroyed the bases along with more than 50 terrorists including Pakistan Army regulars.

MyNation takes a look at the world’s five most famous surgical strikes carried out by different forces in different countries spread across the globe.


1.  Operation Geronimo

 Killing of Osama Bin Laden: It is one of the most widely-publicized and well known surgical strikes carried out by American Navy SEALS under the codename Operation Geronimo near Pakistani military academy situated close to their capital Islamabad. The American commandos flying in choppers killed Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden in his house and also flew away with his body which was dumped in the Arabian Sea. Several movies have been made of this operation. 

2.  Indian surgical strikes in Pakistan

 India took revenge for the killing of 20 soldiers by the Pakistani terrorists in Uri of Jammu and Kashmir on September 20, 2016. This was the worst hit on Indian Army in the last two decades. The Narendra Modi government weighed all options with it and then launched one of the biggest cross-border strikes where commandos entered Pakistan from multiple locations.

The terrorists and their masters sitting in their huts were hit hard by Indian Special Forces and more than 50 of them were killed in the night operations. The best part of the operation was that India did not suffer any casualty except for one soldier who suffered injuries after stepping on a landmine in the Pakistani territory on his way back in the Indian territory.

3.  Operation Opera by Israel

In 1976, Iraq had purchased an "Osiris"-class nuclear reactor from France. While Iraq and France maintained that the reactor, named Osirak by the French, was intended for peaceful scientific research, the Israelis viewed the reactor with suspicion and said that it was designed to make nuclear weapons. On 7 June 1981, a flight of Israeli Air Force F-16 fighter aircraft, with an escort of a Striking Eagle plane, bombed and heavily damaged the Osirak reactor. Israel claimed it acted in self-defense, and that the reactor had "less than a month to go" before "it might have become critical. Ten Iraqi soldiers and one French civilian were killed.

4.  Indian surgical strike in Myanmar

 In June 2015, an Indian Army team of Dogra regiment was moving out of Manipur to a peace location after completing its counter-insurgency operational duty there. The convoy of the 6 Dogra Regiment was ambushed by the NSCN-K terrorists in the in Chandel district of Manipur and 18 jawans were killed.

India kept quiet for some time but launched its forces inside Myanmar on June 10 to take revenge in which around 40 NSCN-K terrorists were gunned down by the Indian special forces and it was made clear to the world that India would retaliate even if has to cross the border if its people were assaulted by others. 

5.  Operation Entebbe

 Also known as Operation Thunderbolt, it was one of the most successful counter-terrorist and anti-hijacking operations in the world. Under this, on July 4, 1976, over 100 Israeli commandos flew in a plane over 2,500 miles away from their homeland and successfully secured the release of over 100 Israeli civilians whose aircraft had been taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists. The hijackers had the stated objective to free 40 Palestinian and affiliated militants imprisoned in Israel and 13 prisoners in four other countries in exchange for the hostages and were supported by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.

The operation took place at night where Israeli commandos in 90 minutes rescued 102 of the 106 Israeli hostages along with killing all the hijackers and Ugandan soldiers. They destroyed 11 MiG-21 and MiG-1s7s of the Ugandans there.