Operation Opera Orientalis

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Operation Opera Orientalis

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Operation Opera Orientalis (also known as Operation Opera and Operation Labrador[1]) was a false flag operation carried out during the Yugoslav Wars in 1991 by the Serb-controlled Yugoslav Air Force intelligence service. Operation Opera involved diversions, spreading misinformation, and psychological war, while "Labrador" involved infiltrating agents in Croatia. They were part of an internal conflict between the security services of the Yugoslav People's Army and the Air Force.[2]

In August 1991, the Jewish cemetery and Jewish community center in Zagreb, Croatia were bombed. The individuals responsible for the bombing were later found to be members of the intelligence service.

Operation Opera was an attempt to discredit Croatia in the West, and ostensibly to detract from the validity of Croatia's demands for independence.[3] The action was coordinated with a flood of false accusations launched by Serbian media and pro-Serb worldwide lobbies, such as the Belgrade-based Serbian-Jewish Friendship Society, in which independent Croatia was associated with World War II, Nazism and anti-Judaism.[4] During Slobodan Milošević's trial at the ICTY, former KOS agent Mustafa Čandić testified that KOS agents infiltrated HDZ circles, launched terrorist attacks at Jewish graves in Mirogoj and then fled to Belgrade.[1] According to the testimony, the officer in charge for Operation Labrador was the head of the security department, Slobodan Rakočević, in Zemun, while the operative staff of the second detachment of the counter-intelligence group in Zagreb were Colonel Ivan Sabolović and Major Čedo Knežević. With respect to Operation Opera, Radenko Radojčić was in charge.[1]

Within several days of the bombing, however, tens of thousands of people, among them government and religious officials, poured into the streets of Zagreb to express their support for the Jewish community. Damages from the bombing were quickly repaired with the help of the Croatian government.[5]

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