Israeli Target in Syria Continues to Raise Questions

Uncertainty persists over the nature of a Syrian facility bombed by Israel in September, and international nuclear officials are examining the possibility that the site was a radar station, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 1).

U.S. officials have suggested the Israeli air strike destroyed an incomplete nuclear reactor built with North Korean assistance, but Syria razed the site following the attack, making future investigations far more difficult.

Satellite images acquired by one private expert suggested the site could have been intended to be a nuclear facility (see GSN, Oct. 26), but other analysts have demurred.

“There hasn’t been anything that constitutes a definitive smoking-gun proof that this facility the Israelis attacked was indeed a nuclear facility,” said David Hartwell, an editor for Jane’s Country Risk in London.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has tried to investigate the nuclear claims, but is also examining whether the attacked building could have been a radar base, according to a diplomat familiar with agency affairs (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Nov. 13).

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