Report: Photos indicate nuclear-like construction in Syria

Oct 24, 2007, 14:27 GMT

Washington - Satellite photos taken before an Israeli airstrike on Syria in September show buildings were under construction that resemble a North Korean reactor, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The newspaper quoted two nuclear experts from the Washington think tank, Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), as saying the images showed a compound with a tall boxy structure similar to something that would house a gas-graphite reactor.

They also showed something like a pumping stations that could supply cooling water to a reactor, according to David Albright and Paul Brannan of ISIS quoted by the newspaper.

'I'm pretty convinced that Syria was trying to build a nuclear reactor,' Albright was quoted as saying.

Syria has protested the destructive airstrikes in early September to the United Nations and has denied that it was building a nuclear facility. Israel has not explained why it made the raid, and US officials have not spoken on the record about the attack. There has been an unusual silence throughout the Arab world on the issue.

The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna has said it had no information about an undeclared nuclear facility in Syria, but was now in touch with Syrian authorities on the issue.

Last week, the Washington Post quoted unnamed US and foreign officials with access to intelligence information as saying the airstrike targetted a partially-constructed nuclear reactor.

Wednesday's story was the first to name sources who identified the site through the photos - but the story also quoted other nuclear experts as saying it is difficult to identify a North-Korea type reactor from the air.

'You can look at North Korea's (reactor) buildings and they look like nothing,' John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org was quoted as saying.