JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel struck a nuclear reactor when it allegedly bombed a Syrian site in 2007, the head of the international nuclear watchdog said.
Yukiya Amano, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the structure in the Syrian desert destroyed by Israeli warplanes was definitely a nuclear reactor, The Associated Press reported Thursday. It marked the first time that the U.N. agency has confirmed that a nuclear reactor was located at the site.
Amano made his comments at a news conference focusing on the fallout from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.
"The facility that was … destroyed by Israel was a nuclear reactor under construction," the AP quoted Amano as saying, adding that he repeated it again later to an AP reporter.
Syria denies that it has ever developed a nuclear weapons program. Israel has never confirmed or denied the strike.
