How Mossad Snipers Shot a General from a Hotel Balcony Across the Seine River

How Mossad Snipers Shot a General from a Hotel Balcony Across the Seine River May 22, 1995, Paris, France. Syrian intelligence chief Colonel Adnan Khoury stays at the luxurious Hôtel de Crillon on Place de la Concorde during weapons negotiations with French defense contractors, his suite protected by Syrian security and French DST surveillance making ground assault impossible. Mossad rents a top-floor suite at the Hôtel d'Orsay across the Seine River, 620 meters away, posing as "German art collectors" for two weeks while waiting for perfect conditions. Using thermal imaging to map Khoury's evening routine, they identify a 6-minute window when he stands on his balcony smoking cigars at 10:30 PM. On night 14, during light rain that reduces sound and clears tourists from riverside walkways, they fire a suppressed .338 Lapua round across the water—striking him through the throat as he exhales smoke, his body falling backward into his suite. French investigators initially suspect Syrian factional assassination until ballistic analysis reveals the impossible riverside angle, by which time the Germans have checked out and vanished.