Israel discovers Syrian nuclear reactor 5 years before ruining it – IDF
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson revealed on Tuesday they were aware that Syria was developing a nuclear reactor five years before destroying it.
In September 2002, Military Intelligence knew that Syria has started a classified nuclear project that Israel had not known of before, according to The Jerusalem post, an Israeli newspaper.
The Military Intelligence has seen, through satellite scans of Syria, that the building was structured regularly.
Then Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin, head of Military Intelligence, convinced Mossad chief Meir Dagan to send agents to obtain conclusive intelligence.
“Military Intelligence assessed that the information that they had did not point toward an active military project but that it was dealing with several issues that could contribute to the beginning of such a program,” the newspaper said, citing IDF intelligence as saying.
Later on, the project turned out to be the nuclear reactor that the Syrian government was building in the deserts of Deir ez-Zor.
On March 2007, the Mossad confirmed the existence of the reactor after obtaining photographs of it.
On July 2007, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened his security cabinet to destroy the reactor.
On September 5, 2007, Israeli warplanes entered Syrian airspace via Turkey, and pilots called out the operation’s codeword, “Arizona,” destroying the facility with 17 tons of bombs.