Carlos the Jackal: Trail of Terror, Parts 1 and 2

Wrath of God

Mohamed Boudia served as the Popular Front's chief operative in Paris in the guise of a theatre director. He was notorious for his ability to seduce young women and convert them to his cause. In 1971 Boudia, an explosives expert, took his young German girlfriend and traveled to Rotterdam in Holland. Their mission was to blow up an Israeli goods depot but the mission failed when the explosives were placed incorrectly and destroyed a Gulf oil refinery instead. Unperturbed, Boudia later sent the same girlfriend, and two other women, to Jerusalem during the Easter holiday period, to blow up a string of holiday hotels. The plan failed when Israeli police detained them at Tel Aviv airport where they were searched and found to be carrying plastic explosives and timers secreted under their clothing and in their make-up. In addition, their underwear had been impregnated with inflammable liquid.

Some months later, Boudia and another woman named Therese Lefebvre, tried to attack Schonau castle in Austria, which was used as a transit camp for Russian Jews traveling to Israel. That plan failed but their next attack on an oil refinery in Trieste, Italy succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. The twenty kilos of plastic explosive they planted not only destroyed the refinery, it also crippled the Transalpine pipeline that supplied Bavaria, Vienna and central Europe. The resulting oil fire burned for two days and destroyed 250,000 tons of crude oil, causing damage worth $2.5 billion dollars.

On 28 June 1973, shortly before midday, Boudia left the home of one of his mistresses on the Rue des Fosses-Saint-Bernard. He approached his car and being a cautious person, checked it to see if it had been tampered with. Satisfied that it had not, he climbed into the drivers seat but before he could settle himself in the vehicle, an explosion tore through the car killing him instantly. A later investigation by the DST, the French intelligence organization, revealed that a team of Israeli assassins called the "Wrath of God," had planted a mine under Boudia's driver seat. The device, activated by a pressure plate, was a rudimentary one by Israeli standards but proved effective. Boudia had been one of the last targets of the "Wrath of God" group that had been formed to avenge the killings at the Munich Olympics. The group operated with the express approval of the Israeli Prime Minister of the time, Golda Meir.

Three weeks after the attack, Carlos returned to Beirut and asked to be sent to Paris to replace Boudia. Although the leaders of the Popular Front were impressed with his work in London, they felt that he did not have the experience for the job and sent him back to London. On his return he was advised that Michel Moukharbal was to be Boudia's successor and Carlos was to serve as his second in command. Carlos was not pleased with the decision and resented Moukhabal's appointment, as he believed that he was unsuitable for the task. Regardless of his disappointment, Carlos made every effort to assist his new leader and agreed that Boudia's death would have to be avenged by striking at Zionist targets in Europe. The attack on Joseph Sieff in London was the first such strike that Carlos would claim responsibility for but it was only the beginning.