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Israel had details of Syrian nuclear site 5 years before bombing it

September 7, 2022 at 8:34 am

Israeli army carry out military exercise on June 22, 2022 [Mamoun Wazwaz/Anadolu Agency]

The Israeli military yesterday released intelligence documents kept secret for two decades which show Tel Aviv had warned in 2002 against Syria launching a military nuclear programme, local media reported.

According to the documents, the Israeli occupation attacked and destroyed a site in the Syrian city of Deir Ez-Zor in 2007 in what was called  ‘Operation Outside the Box’.

The site, the document stated, was razed to the ground, along with Syria’s nuclear programme, while Israeli forces incurred no losses.

Israel officially acknowledged the strike only a decade later.

Ynet News said that the site could have been a secret nuclear reactor and the keystone of Syria’s nuclear ambitions.

“Recently it became known that the Syria Atomic Agency Commission is carrying out (or has carried out) classified projects that were previously unknown,” details the document compiled by the Military Intelligence Directorate.

READ: Israel air attack damages Syria’s Aleppo airport

It added: “The information doesn’t point to an active military nuclear programme in Syria, but it does indicate activity in areas that can support the development of such a programme and raises suspicions of the beginning of the development of such a programme.”

Following the Israeli military strike that targeted the site in Deir Ez-Zor, then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Ehud Barak sent a letter to then-Air Force Commander Eliezer Shekdi thanking him for the strike.

“This operation holds historical significance which will fortify Israel’s security and deterrence,” Barak wrote in a letter classified as top secret.

Ynet News reported that collecting intelligence about the site took time and diplomatic, political and military efforts where discussions and deliberations took place at Mossad headquarters in Israel, White House, the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, the Air Force headquarters and a number of hotels in several European capitals.