Israel admits BOMBING Syrian nuclear reactor in dire warning to Iran

The shocking confession comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated calls in recent months for the US and international community to take tougher action on Iran, one of Bashar Al Assad’s Syria’s allies.

Tehran has been seen as a threat by Mr Netanyahu, despite Iran insisting its nuclear programme has only peaceful aims.

And in a new twist, the Israeli military has claimed that North Korea helped build the Syrian reactor and the Al-Kubar facility near Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria, and said it was just months away from its activation.

The force claims that an active reactor in the area would have had “severe strategic implications on the entire Middle East as well as Israel and Syria.”

Israel Katz, Israel’s intelligence minister, defended the airstrike on Twitter. 

He wrote: “The (2007) operation and its success made clear that Israel will never allow nuclear weaponry to be in the hands of those who threaten its existence – Syria then, and Iran today.”

The Israeli military released previously classified cockpit footage, photographs and intelligence documents about the bombing that took place on September 6, 2007, and described in detail the events leading up to the attack.

The nation’s military said that eight warplanes, F-16s and F15s, took off from the Ramon and Hatzerim air bases and flown to the Deir al-Zor region, 450km northwest of Damascus to drop 18 tonnes of munitions on the site.

An Israeli top secret intelligence report recently declassified dated March 30, 2007 reads: “Syria has set up, within its territory, a nuclear reactor for the production of plutonium, through North Korea, which according to an (initial) worst-case assessment is liable to be activated in approximately another year. 

“To our assessment secretive and orderly for achieving a nuclear weapon.”

An accusation that North Korea was meddling with Syria was brought forward by the US as well in an intelligence briefing in 2008.

The US report claimed that the North Korean regime had helped Syria with “covert nuclear activities”.

Syria dismissed the accusations as part of a campaign to discredit the government. 

In a statement, Damascus said: “The Syrian government regrets the campaign of lies and falsification by the U.S. administration against Syria, including allegations of nuclear activity.” 

The Israeli attack was first made public by Syria in the early hours of September 6, when it said it had repelled an incursion by Israeli warplanes.

The Israeli release, which Reuters said it has been unable to immediately verify, contains a black-and-white aerial photograph captioned “before the attack” and showing a box-like structure amid desert dunes with smaller outlying buildings.

A series of black-and-white videos, taken above the target, shows the structure in cross-hairs. 

A male voice is heard counting down three seconds, a cloud of black smoke rises from the structure as it explodes.

Other footage appears to show the aftermath – a smouldering hole in the ground.

Israel’s release came ahead of the publication of a memoir by the then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert containing a recount of the 2007 strike.