http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/14/wsyria114.xml
ISRAEL STRIKE 'TARGETED SYRIAN NUCLEAR REACTOR'
By Matthew Moore and agencies
Israel's mysterious air strike in the Syrian desert last month was
aimed as destroying a partially-constructed nuclear reactor, according
to reports in the US.
The reactor's design was similar to a North Korean facility, the New
York Times quoted US and Israeli intelligence sources as saying,
fuelling fears of nuclear co-operation between two members of George W
Bush's "axis of evil".
Mystery has surrounded the target of the Sept 6 strike by Israeli F15
long-rang attack aircraft, with the Israeli military initially
refusing to confirm or deny whether any attack took place.
Syria issued a lukewarm complaint immediately afterwards but has not
sought to make it a diplomatic issue, apparently reluctant to draw
attention to the facility that had been destroyed.
According to the New York Times, the Bush administration was aware of
Israeli plans to take out the reactor, and divided over whether this
was the best approach.
The newspaper reported that the Syrian facility was closer to
completion than a similar Iraqi reactor destroyed by the Israelis in
1981, but it was still thought to have been years from producing
nuclear fuel that could have been turned into weapons-grade plutonium.
The newspaper said its intelligence sources refused to be drawn on
Pyongyang's connection to the alleged nuclear facility, but it is
known that a North Korean freighter docked in the Syrian port of
Tartous days before the strike.
An Israeli on-line data analyst, Ronen Solomon, found an internet
trace for the 1,700-tonne cargo ship, Al Hamed, which showed the
vessel started to off-load what Syrian officials categorised as
"cement" on Sept 3.
Both Israel and the White House refused to comment on the New York
Times story.
Syria and Israel have fought major wars on three occasions, in 1948,
1967 and 1973, as well as numerous other skirmishes.
The two nations remain formally at war although an uneasy calm has
largely held for the past three decades.