Israel Target in Syria Likely Nuclear Site: UN

The Syrian facility Israel bombed last year looks a lot like a nuclear reactor, UN inspectors said today, though they stopped short of calling it one. The independent investigation found manipulated uranium and features like large cooling pumps that are hallmarks of a nuclear site, the Washington Post reports. Syria denies the claim and suggests the uranium came from Israeli weapons.

The Syrian explanation is unlikely since there was “not one single trace” of the depleted material, inspectors say. Damascus has provided new documents it says accounts for why the material might be there in the absence of a nuclear program, but the UN report appears to back US contentions.
(More Syria stories.)