Washington/Jerusalem - Israel launched its mysterious
airstrike in northern Syria earlier this month after sharing
intelligence information with the United States on the suspected
target, the Washington Post reported Friday.
According to the Washington Post, which cited US government
sources speaking on condition of anonymity, the target hit in the
airstrike, launched September 6 and since clouded in secrecy, was a
suspected nuclear site in northern Syria set up with help from North
Korea.
Israel shared its information that North Korean nuclear experts
were in Syria assisting with its nuclear ambitions with US President
George W Bush this summer, the Post said. Bush refused to comment on
the airstrike during a press conference on Thursday.
Bush's spokeswoman, Dana Perino, refused to comment on the Post
report on Friday.
'I'm not saying, one way or the other, whether it's accurate,'
Perino said.
The Bush administration was deeply troubled by Israel's assertion
but opted against an immediate response to avoid undermining the
negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear activities, according
to the Post, but did provide Israel with some corroboration of its
original intelligence.
During the press conference Thursday, Bush warned that any
proliferation by North Korea of nuclear material or know-how could
jeopardize the outcome for the six-nation talks seeking to resolve
the dispute over Pyongyang nuclear work.
'To the extent that they are proliferating, we expect them to stop
their proliferation if they want the six-party talks to be
successful,' he said.
Since 'Operation Orchard,' Israel has followed a policy of
absolute silence, with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert instructing his
ministers to refrain from any comment.
But opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu became the first Israeli
official to come close to confirming the airstrike took place, when
he said in an interview with Israel's Channel One television
Wednesday night that he had been informed of 'the matter' and had
given his backing to Olmert.
'When a prime minister does something that is important and
necessary to Israel's security ... I give my backing,' he added,
without giving further details.
The policy of silence is in contrast to past Israeli raids. Israel
did issue an announcement when it attacked a nuclear reactor in Iraq
in 1981.
The lack of official information from either Israel, the US or
Syria, which only spoke of an 'Israeli violation of Syrian airspace'
and 'dropping of ammunitions,' has sparked a chain of speculation.
The Cable News Network (CNN), reporting the first unofficial
confirmation by unanimous US sources that Israel did carry out an
airstrike in Syria, had said the target may have been a weapons
shipment over land earmarked for the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. It
made no mention of an alleged nuclear facility.
Syria and North Korea both vehemently denied this week that they
were cooperating on a nuclear programme.
The Israeli attack, however, is said to have come just three days
after a North Korean ship docked at the Syrian port of Tartus,
carrying a cargo that was officially listed as cement.
The Israeli airstrike would be the first in Syria since October
2003, when Israel attacked a training base north-west of Damascus,
which it said was used by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad faction in
retaliation to a deadly suicide bombing in the Israeli port city of
Haifa.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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