JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel for the first time admitted that it bombed a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007 and said on Wednesday the strike should be a warning to Iran that it would not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

The military released previously classified cockpit footage, photographs and intelligence documents about its Sept. 6, 2007, air strike on the Al-Kubar facility near Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria.

It said the reactor was being constructed with help from North Korea and had been months away from activation. Amos Yadlin, Israel’s military intelligence chief at the time, said on Israel Radio that even with a functioning reactor, it would have taken Syria years to build a nuclear weapon.

Reuters has been unable to immediately verify the Israeli material.

Israel’s decision to go public comes after repeated calls in recent months by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the United States and international community to take tougher action on Iran, Syria’s ally.

Netanyahu said on Wednesday Israel was determined to prevent its enemies from obtaining nuclear weapons.

“The Israeli government, the Israel Defense Forces and the Mossad prevented Syria from developing nuclear capability. They are worthy of full praise for this. Israel’s policy was and remains consistent - to prevent our enemies from arming themselves with nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu wrote on Twitter.

Intelligence minister, Israel Katz, said earlier on Twitter: “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.”

Iran, which says its nuclear program has only peaceful aims, signed a 2015 deal under which it accepted curbs on its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. U.S. President Donald Trump and Netanyahu have both been critical of the deal.

The Israeli military described in detail events leading up to the night of Sept 5-6, 2007, in which, it said, eight warplanes, F-16s and F-15s, carried out the mission after taking off from the Ramon and Hatzerim air bases.

They flew to Deir al-Zor region, 450 km (270 miles) northwest of Damascus, and dropped 18 tonnes of munitions on the site, it said.

Yadlin said Israel decided at the time against acknowledging the raid on the reactor so as not to provoke Syrian President Bashar al-Assad into retaliating. “No core. No war,” Yadlin said about Israel’s goal.

“TOP SECRET”

The Israeli military on Wednesday declassified internal “top secret” intelligence reports, in Hebrew, some of them partly redacted.

A still frame taken from video material released on March 21, 2018 shows a combination image of what the Israeli military describes is before and after an Israeli air strike on a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site near Deir al-Zor on Sept 6, 2007. IDF/Handout via Reuters TV

One, dated March 30, 2007, said: “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 [REDACTED] secretive and orderly [REDACTED] for achieving a nuclear weapon.”

Israeli intelligence predicted that the suspected reactor “would turn operational by the end of 2007”.

The mission to destroy the reactor started at 10.30 p.m. on Sept. 5 and ended with the return of the warplanes at 2.30 a.m. the next day, the Israeli military said.

The disclosure on Wednesday stemmed in part, Yadlin said, from years of pressure by the Israeli media on military censors to allow them to publish Israeli-sourced information about the raid and the release on Wednesday of memoirs by Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister who ordered the bombing.

The event was first made public by Syria, which, as reported by Reuters at the time, said in the early hours of Sept. 6 that its air defenses had repelled an incursion by Israeli warplanes.

Syria, a signatory of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has always denied that the site was a reactor or that Damascus engaged in nuclear cooperation with North Korea.

In his 2010 memoir “Decision Points,” former U.S. President George W. Bush disclosed he discussed intelligence about the Syrian facility with Olmert before it was destroyed but did not give him the green light for the raid.

In 2008 the United States presented what it described as intelligence showing that North Korea had helped Syria with “covert nuclear activities.” At the time Syria dismissed the accusations as part of a campaign to discredit the Damascus government.

Slideshow (17 Images)

The Israeli release 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 smoldering hole in the ground.

“Arizona”, one pilot radioed to military headquarters in Tel Aviv, giving the code word for a successful operation.</s>Israel's military admitted for the first time Wednesday it was responsible for a 2007 air raid against a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor, a strike it was long believed to have carried out.

The admission along with the release of newly declassified material related to the raid comes as Israel intensifies its warnings over the presence of its main enemy Iran in neighbouring Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also repeatedly called for the nuclear deal between world powers and Iran to be changed or eliminated.

US President Donald Trump, who met Netanyahu at the White House this month, has said that the nuclear deal must be "fixed" by May 12 or the United States will walk away.

An Israeli military spokesman declined to respond to questions related to the admission and the release of the documents, including over the timing, which could be seen as a warning regarding Iran's activities.

The declassified material includes footage of the strike, video of a speech by military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot on the operation and pictures of secret army intelligence communiques about the site.

A military statement summarising the operation lays out the case for why Israel carried out the strike at the desert site in the Deir Ezzor region of eastern Syria on what it says was a nuclear reactor under construction.

It has long been widely assumed that Israel carried out the strike. Syria has meanwhile denied it was building a nuclear reactor.

"On the night between September 5th-6th, 2007, Israeli Air Force fighter jets successfully struck and destroyed a Syrian nuclear reactor in development," the Israeli statement says.

"The reactor was close to being completed. The operation successfully removed an emerging existential threat to Israel and to the entire region -- Syrian nuclear capabilities."

Israel's admission is by no means the first time its military has been identified as the source of the attack.

In 2008, less than a year after the strike, US officials accused Syria of having sought to build a secret nuclear reactor and acknowledged Israel destroyed it in the raid.

The UN atomic watchdog declared in 2011 that the Syrian site was "very likely" to have been a nuclear reactor, adding that information provided to it suggested that it was being built with North Korean assistance.

Israel said in its new disclosures that secrecy surrounding the strike was necessary due to the sensitive security situation.

In defending the strike, it notes that Islamic State group jihadists later overran much of Deir Ezzor during Syria's civil war, while also saying that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "in the past used chemical weapons against his own citizens."

"The nuclear reactor being held by Assad would have had severe strategic implications on the entire Middle East as well as Israel and Syria," it said.

While Israel's admission will come as little surprise, the declassified material provides new details on what is widely known as "Operation Orchard."

The material speaks of an ultra-secretive operation, with very few knowing details of the strike and a cover story provided.

Israeli intelligence had picked up on what it determined was the construction of the nuclear reactor and followed its development, it says.

Four F-16s and four F-15s were involved in the strike, with the operation beginning at 10:30 pm on September 5 and the planes returning at 2:30 am the following day.

Grainy footage of the strike included in the material shows a target locking on to a building that is blown apart shortly afterward.

Israel determined that the alleged reactor was "totally disabled, and that the damage done was irreversible."

Israeli military chief of staff Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, who was northern commander at the time, recalled in a video in the material meeting with his officers shortly before the raid.

"I don't give them the exact details of the target and its essence, but I say that there's going to be a significant attack in the upcoming 24-48 hours, an event that in low likeliness could lead to war," he said.

"Low, to me, is even 15 or 20 percent, which is a lot."

Syria and Israel have fought in repeated wars since the Jewish state's founding in 1948. The two countries are still technically at war.

Israel has sought to avoid direct involvement in the Syrian civil war that broke out in 2011, but it acknowledges carrying out dozens of air strikes there to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is fighting alongside Assad's regime, like Iran and Russia.

Israel has expressed growing concern over what it sees as Iran's attempts to entrench itself militarily in Syria.

It also accuses Iran of seeking to build factories to construct precision-guided missiles in Syria and Lebanon that could be used against Israel.

Beyond that, Netanyahu has warned that Israel will "never let Iran develop nuclear weapons."

Eisenkot spoke of the "message" of the 2007 strike, while making reference to a 1981 Israeli raid against a nuclear reactor in Iraq.

"The message from the 2007 reactor attack was that Israel won't accept the construction of abilities that could constitute an existential threat to the state of Israel," he said in the video.

"That's the message from '81, that's the message from 2007 and that's our future message to our enemies."</s>A still frame taken from video material released on March 21, 2018 shows a combination image of what the Israeli military describes is before and after an Israeli air strike on a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site near Deir al-Zor on Sept 6, 2007. Reuters
• Israel admitted for the first time that it bombed a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007, and said it's a warning to Iran that it will not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
• The Israeli military released previously classified cockpit footage, photographs and intelligence documents about its Sept. 6, 2007, air strike on the Al-Kubar facility near Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria.
• Israel said the reactor was being built with help from North Korea, and was months away from activation, but Reuters has not verified the material.

Israel for the first time admitted that it bombed a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007 and said on Wednesday the strike should be a warning to Iran that it would not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

The Israeli military released previously classified cockpit footage, photographs and intelligence documents about its Sept. 6, 2007, air strike on the Al-Kubar facility near Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria.

It said the reactor was being built with help from North Korea and the facility had been months away from activation. Reuters has been unable to immediately verify the Israeli material.

Israel's decision to go public comes after repeated calls in recent months by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the United States and international community to take tougher action on Iran, Syria's ally.

Israel's intelligence minister, Israel Katz, said on Twitter: "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 described in detail events leading up to the night of Sept 5-6, 2007, in which, it said, eight warplanes, F-16s and F-15s, carried out the mission after taking off from the Ramon and Hatzerim air bases and flying to Deir al-Zor region, 450 km northwest of Damascus. Eighteen tonnes of munitions were dropped on the site, it said.

Top row: The site before the attack (L), yellow circles depicting bombs during the air strike on the site (R). Bottom row: An explosion during the air strike on the site (L), debris seen on the site after the attack (R). Reuters

In his 2010 memoir "Decision Points," former U.S. President George W. Bush disclosed that he discussed intelligence about the Syrian facility with then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert before it was destroyed but did not give him the green light for the raid.

James Jeffrey, Bush's deputy national security adviser, said on Wednesday the former U.S. president had been "absolutely supportive" of Israel.

"(He) made it clear that we were very happy that events had eliminated this threat and that if there were any threats to Israel that would emerge from this situation, the United States would stand with Israel, period," Jeffrey told Israel's Army Radio.

In 2008 the United States presented what it described as intelligence showing that North Korea had helped Syria with "covert nuclear activities." At the time Syria dismissed the accusations as part of a campaign to discredit the Damascus government.

"The Syrian government regrets the campaign of lies and falsification by the U.S. administration against Syria, including allegations of nuclear activity," said a government statement issued on the Syrian state news agency.

Iran, which says its nuclear program has only peaceful aims, signed a 2015 deal under which it accepted curbs on its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. U.S. President Donald Trump and Netanyahu have both been critical of the deal.

An undated image released on March 21, 2018 by the Israeli military relates to an Israeli air strike on a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site near Deir al-Zor on Sept 6, 2007. Reuters

The Israeli military declassified internal "top secret" intelligence reports, in Hebrew, some of them partly redacted.

One, dated March 30, 2007, said: "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 [REDACTED] secretive and orderly [REDACTED] for achieving a nuclear weapon."

Israeli intelligence predicted that the suspected reactor "would turn operational by the end of 2007".

The mission to destroy the facility started at 10.30 p.m. on Sept. 5 and ended with the return of the warplanes at 2.30 a.m. the next day, the Israeli military said.

The event was first made public by Syria, which, as reported by Reuters at the time, said in the early hours of Sept. 6 that Syrian air defenses had repelled an incursion by Israeli warplanes.

Syria, a signatory of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has always denied that the site was a reactor or that Damascus engaged in nuclear cooperation with North Korea.

The Israeli military's announcement on Wednesday noted that the area in question, around Deir al-Zor, was captured by Islamic State after the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011.

This undated combination image released by the U.S. Government shows the North Korean reactor in Yongbyon and the nuclear reactor under construction in Syria. Reuters

Had there been an active reactor there, the Israeli military said, it would have had "severe strategic implications on the entire Middle East as well as Israel and Syria".

The Israeli release 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 smoldering hole in the ground.

Wednesday's release came ahead of the publication of a memoir by Olmert containing passages about the 2007 strike.</s>Israel’s military has gone public for the first time to confirm a 2007 airstrike on a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor, announcing details of a night-time attack its intelligence minister said provides a clear warning to Iran.

In a secret operation that has been extensively speculated on for a decade, Israel said it sent four F-16 fighters hundreds of miles into Syria on 6 September 2007, to bomb the partially completed Al-Kubar facility near Deir ez-Zor.

Previously-classified footage, images and intelligence documents on the plan showed how Israel had monitored the site for several years and feared it could become operational within months.

One report, dated 30 March 2007, said: “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.”

The military said that following the four-hour operation, the reactor “had been totally disabled”, and the damage done “was irreversible”.

Black and white aerial images showed a box-like construction close to the Euphrates river in the desert, while video showed the structure exploding in a cloud of smoke following a countdown by a male voice.

The move to go public with the strike, which has already been widely reported and cited to US officials, comes amid repeated warnings by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for the United States and others to take more robust action on Syria’s ally, Iran.

Netanyahu shares Donald Trump’s view that world powers needed to scrap or rewrite the 2015 accord with Tehran that curbs its nuclear ambitions, as he believes it to be ineffective.

Israel’s intelligence minister, Yisrael Katz, made a direct warning to Iran in a tweet on Wednesday morning, saying the raid provided a clear message that Israel would not allow “nuclear weapons to countries like Iran who threaten its existence.”

The defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman, stopped short of suggesting the possibility of a similar strike on Iranian facilities, but made clear the 2007 attack proved Israel was willing and able to act militarily.

“The motivation of our enemies has grown in recent years, but so too the might of the (Israel Defence Forces),” he said. “Everyone in the Middle East would do well to internalise this equation.”

Israel had acted before against the nuclear ambitions of its neighbours, notably in 1981 when it attacked a reactor under construction in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.



Syria signed the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and had always denied the site was a reactor or that Damascus cooperated with North Korea to build nuclear weapons. At the time of the 2007 attack, Syria accused Israel of invading its airspace without providing further details.

Israel’s military sought to justify the strike on Wednesday further, noting that the Islamic State captured the area around the facility during Syria’s civil war.

“The security implications of a nuclear reactor falling into the hands of Isis or other extremist groups during the war in Syria are vast,” it said.

Israel is not a signatory to the NPT and has long refused to confirm or deny reports by foreign governments that it holds nuclear weapons.

The military did not specify why it chose to go public with the material. As well as speculation that it was released as a warning to Iran, the move may be related to the upcoming memoir by Ehud Olmert, Israeli prime minister at the time, who ordered the strike.

As Iran becomes increasingly engaged in Syria’s seven-year conflict, Israel has grown distressed that its most potent foe has a military presence in a country with which it shares a border.

The Israeli air force has conducted well over 100 airstrikes in Syria, most believed to target suspected weapons shipments destined for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group.

Last month, Israel downed a drone in its airspace that it claimed was Iranian, triggering a clash in which an Israeli jet was struck by Syrian anti-aircraft fire and “large-scale” strikes on targets near Damascus.</s>JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel for the first time admitted that it bombed a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007 and said on Wednesday the strike should be a warning to Iran that it would not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

The Israeli military released previously classified cockpit footage, photographs and intelligence documents about its Sept. 6, 2007, air strike on the Al-Kubar facility near Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria.

It said the reactor was being built with help from North Korea and the facility had been months away from activation. Reuters has been unable to immediately verify the Israeli material.

Israel’s decision to go public comes after repeated calls in recent months by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the United States and international community to take tougher action on Iran, Syria’s ally.

Israel’s intelligence minister, Israel Katz, said on Twitter: “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 described in detail events leading up to the night of Sept 5-6, 2007, in which, it said, eight warplanes, F-16s and F-15s, carried out the mission after taking off from the Ramon and Hatzerim air bases and flying to Deir al-Zor region, 450 km northwest of Damascus. Eighteen tonnes of munitions were dropped on the site, it said.

In his 2010 memoir “Decision Points,” former U.S. President George W. Bush disclosed that he discussed intelligence about the Syrian facility with then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert before it was destroyed but did not give him the green light for the raid.

James Jeffrey, Bush’s deputy national security adviser, said on Wednesday the former U.S. president had been “absolutely supportive” of Israel.

“(He) made it clear that we were very happy that events had eliminated this threat and that if there were any threats to Israel that would emerge from this situation, the United States would stand with Israel, period,” Jeffrey told Israel’s Army Radio.

In 2008 the United States presented what it described as intelligence showing that North Korea had helped Syria with “covert nuclear activities.” At the time Syria dismissed the accusations as part of a campaign to discredit the Damascus government.

“The Syrian government regrets the campaign of lies and falsification by the U.S. administration against Syria, including allegations of nuclear activity,” said a government statement issued on the Syrian state news agency.

Iran, which says its nuclear program has only peaceful aims, signed a 2015 deal under which it accepted curbs on its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. U.S. President Donald Trump and Netanyahu have both been critical of the deal.

The Israeli military declassified internal “top secret” intelligence reports, in Hebrew, some of them partly redacted.

One, dated March 30, 2007, said: “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 [REDACTED] secretive and orderly [REDACTED] for achieving a nuclear weapon.”

Israeli intelligence predicted that the suspected reactor “would turn operational by the end of 2007”.

The mission to destroy the facility started at 10.30 p.m. on Sept. 5 and ended with the return of the warplanes at 2.30 a.m. the next day, the Israeli military said.

The event was first made public by Syria, which, as reported by Reuters at the time, said in the early hours of Sept. 6 that Syrian air defenses had repelled an incursion by Israeli warplanes.

Syria, a signatory of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has always denied that the site was a reactor or that Damascus engaged in nuclear cooperation with North Korea.

The Israeli military’s announcement on Wednesday noted that the area in question, around Deir al-Zor, was captured by Islamic State after the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011.

Had there been an active reactor there, the Israeli military said, it would have had “severe strategic implications on the entire Middle East as well as Israel and Syria”.

The Israeli release 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 smoldering hole in the ground.

Wednesday’s release came ahead of the publication of a memoir by Olmert containing passages about the 2007 strike.</s>Israel admits to 2007 bombing of suspected Syrian nuclear site as 'message' to others

The Israeli military has formally acknowledged its destruction of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007, saying the air strike removed a major threat to Israel and the region and was a "message" to others.

The announcement about "Operation Out of the Box" was made after Israeli military censors lifted a more-than-10-year order that had barred Israeli officials from discussing it.

Although Israel was widely believed to have been behind the September 6, 2007, airstrike, it had never before commented publicly on it.

The Israeli military's announcement was followed by a release of newly declassified materials including photographs and cockpit video said to show the moment an air strike destroyed the Al-Kubar facility in the desert near Deir-al-Zor, more than 480km inside Syria.

"The message from the attack on the nuclear reactor in 2007 is that the State of Israel will not allow the establishment of capabilities that threaten Israel's existence," military chief Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizencot said in the statement.

"This was our message in 2007, this remains our message today and will continue to be our message in the near and distant future."

Air force commander Major General Amikam Norkin said the current turmoil in Syria had further vindicated the strike, particularly since the reactor was in an area later captured by Islamic State militants.

"Imagine what situation we would be in today if there was a nuclear reactor in Syria," he said.

"In historic hindsight, I think Israel's decision to destroy the reactor is one of the most important decisions taken here in the last 70 years."

Operation took less than four hours

According to the statement, the Israeli intelligence had been monitoring the facility for two years before the bombing.

The Israeli Defence Force bombed the site because they believed the nuclear facility would be completed by the end of that year.

Eight F-15 fighter jets bombed the site, while the whole four-hour operation was watched remotely by senior Israeli government officials, including then prime minister Ehud Olmert.

Israel and Syria have always been bitter enemies.

Throughout Syria's seven-year civil war, Israel has carried out well over 100 airstrikes, most believed to have been aimed at suspected weapons shipments destined for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group.

Both Iran and Hezbollah are allied with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

At the time of the 2007 strike, Syria accused Israel of invading its airspace, but gave no further details about the target.

The timing of Israel's decision to go public and justify the strike more than a decade ago comes after repeated calls in recent months by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the United States and international community to take tougher action on Syria's ally, Iran.

Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly warned Israel will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon "not now, not in 10 years, not ever", or to build missile factories in Syria that could threaten Israel, or provide advanced weapons for Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shiite group in Lebanon.

The Trump administration has also been locked in nuclear brinkmanship with North Korea — which the United States previously said it believed supplied the Al-Kubar reactor.

The International Atomic Energy Agency deemed it, "very likely" the site, "was a nuclear reactor that should have been declared".

Syria, a signatory of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has always denied the site was a reactor or that Damascus engaged in nuclear cooperation with North Korea.

Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.</s>JERUSALEM
• Israel for the first time has admitted that it was responsible for a top secret 2007 air raid against a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor.

The strike was a warning to Iran, Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said yesterday .

Israel was long thought to have carried out the raid, and was even named by several countries as being responsible for it, but it has never formally acknowledged the strike or divulged details, until now.

The admission, along with the release of newly declassified material related to the raid, comes as Israel intensifies its warnings over the presence of its main enemy Iran in neighbouring Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also repeatedly called for a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between world powers and Iran to be changed or cancelled.

United States President Donald Trump - who met Mr Netanyahu at the White House earlier this month - has said the nuclear deal must be "fixed" by May 12 or the US will walk away.

After yesterday's acknowledgement, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the raid should serve as a message for "everyone in the Middle East".

Mr Katz was more explicit. He said it showed that Israel would never allow nuclear weapons to be obtained by "countries like Iran, who threaten its existence".

The declassified material includes footage of the strike, and pictures of secret army intelligence communiques about the site.

Israel, in a military statement, detailed why it carried out the strike at the desert site in the Deir Ezzor region of eastern Syria, targeting what it says was a nuclear reactor under construction. Syria has denied it was building a nuclear reactor.

The statement said: "On the night between Sept 5 to Sept 6, 2007, Israeli Air Force fighter jets successfully struck and destroyed a Syrian nuclear reactor in development. The reactor was close to being completed. The operation successfully removed an emerging existential threat to Israel and to the entire region - Syrian nuclear capabilities."

In 2008, less than a year after the strike, the US presented what it described as intelligence that showed that North Korea had helped Syria with "covert nuclear activities". At the time, Syria dismissed the accusations as part of a campaign to discredit the Damascus government.

The United Nations atomic watchdog in 2011 said the Syrian site was "very likely" to have been a nuclear reactor, and that the information provided to it suggested it was being built with North Korean assistance.

Israel, in its new disclosures, said secrecy surrounding the strike was necessary due to the sensitive security situation, adding that it could have provoked war.

In defending the strike, it said the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria later overran much of the Deir Ezzor area, after the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011. If an active reactor had been there, it would have had "severe strategic implications on the entire Middle East as well as Israel and Syria", the statement added.

The declassified materials provide details on what is known as Operation Orchard. Four F-16 jets and four F-15 jets were involved in the strike, and 18 tonnes of munitions were dropped on the site.

Grainy footage of the strike included in the material shows a target locking on to a building that is blown apart shortly afterwards. Israel concluded that the alleged reactor was "totally disabled, and that the damage done was irreversible".</s>Jerusalem (CNN) Israel acknowledged publicly for the first time Wednesday that it struck a secret nuclear reactor in Syria 11 years ago.

In the darkness of a late Wednesday night in September 2007, eight Israeli fighter jets streaked out of southern Israel, heading north. Two hours later, they reached their target in the Deir Ezzor region in eastern Syria -- a nondescript square building, tucked into a desert valley between rolling hills.

Shortly after midnight, precision-guided Israelis bombs, dropped by the F-16s and F-15s circling above, ripped apart the facility, sending a plume of smoke into the Syrian sky.

The strike destroyed the reactor, which was mere months from completion. If completed, the facility would have made Syria the first Arab nuclear state.

A 2007 photo of an Israeli F-16 fighter jet that took part in the strike.

Israel has now fully acknowledged carrying out the operation, named "Outside the Box," to a handful of media organizations. But at the time, even the name of the operation was secret -- it was spoken of publicly as "Operation Orchard."

Cockpit video from the operation seen by CNN shows the bombs as they fall towards the reactor.

The release of the video comes amid growing concern in Israel about the years-long war unfolding next door in Syria.

It also comes as Israel wages a very public lobbying campaign against Iran -- a key Syrian ally -- and the deal to curtail its nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged US President Donald Trump to "fix or nix it."

Speculating about the timing of the release, Aaron David Miller, a Washington, DC-based Middle East expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said, "I think the Israelis not only are trying to demonstrate deterrence but to make it unmistakably clear that they would strike again."

"To Russia, the Assad regime, and with respect to the Iranian nuclear program should the Iranians accelerate enrichment and seek to break out, that the Israelis are prepared to act against Iran as well."

Israel had been collecting top secret intelligence on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his nuclear ambitions since 2005. Two years later, their conclusion was that Syria was less than a year away from an operational nuclear reactor.

Syria has never acknowledged building a nuclear reactor at the site, instead insisting months later that it was a missile facility.

Speaking in 2008, Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Jaafari, mocked the accusation, saying, "Syria builds many buildings all over the country. Does that mean that any building we build should be a project or a design to be a nuclear center building?"

But pictures released by the US government in early 2008 that they say were taken inside the facility show the core of the reactor under construction.

The US said the gas-cooled, graphite-moderated reactor was built with assistance from North Korea, the only other country to have built such a plant in decades.

"It's not clear even now at what stage the Syrian nuclear reactor was in September [2007]," said Miller. "Some argue that as early as August that year, it was prepared to go online. But extraction of plutonium and developing a weapon, and weaponizing a warhead are two completely different things. But nonetheless, the Israelis acted."

The following summer, International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors found traces of uranium at the site. Michael Hayden, who was CIA Director at the time, said the reactor could not produce electricity and was not for peaceful purposes.

For years, Israel stayed quiet about the strike -- which was carried out under then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert -- believing silence could prevent escalation with Syria. The army prepped for a possible war, but their calculation was correct -- tensions dissipated before they could turn into a conflagration.

It's not the first time Israel has carried out this type of operation -- in June 1981, fighter jets bombed the Osiraq nuclear facility in Iraq, crippling the country's nuclear program.

That strike established Israel's policy, known as the Begin Doctrine and named after then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin, that Israel would carry out preemptive strikes against the development of weapons of mass destruction it considered a threat.</s>The Israeli military formally acknowledged on Wednesday its destruction of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007, saying the air strike removed a major threat to Israel and the region and was a "message" to others.

Wednesday's announcement about "Operation Out of the Box" was made after Israeli military censors lifted a more than 10-year order that had barred Israeli officials from discussing it.

The Israeli military's announcement was followed up by a release of newly declassified materials including photographs and cockpit video said to show the moment that an air strike destroyed the Al-Kubar facility in the desert near Deir-al-Zor, more than 480 km (300 miles) inside Syria.

"The message from the attack on the nuclear reactor in 2007 is that the State of Israel will not allow the establishment of capabilities that threaten Israel's existence," the military chief, Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizencot, said in the statement issued on Wednesday.

"This was our message in 2007, this remains our message today and will continue to be our message in the near and distant future."

The timing of Israel’s decision to go public and justify the strike more than a decade ago comes after repeated calls in recent months by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the United States and international community to take tougher action on Syria’s ally, Iran.

Netanyahu has repeatedly warned that Israel will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon – “not now, not in 10 years, not ever” - or to build missile factories in Syria that could threaten Israel, or provide advanced weapons for Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shi'ite group in Lebanon.

The Trump administration has also been locked in nuclear brinkmanship with North Korea - which the United States has previously said it believed supplied the Al-Kubar reactor.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has deemed it "very likely" that the site "was a nuclear reactor that should have been declared".

Syria, a signatory of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has always denied that the site was a reactor or that Damascus engaged in nuclear cooperation with North Korea.

Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the materials released by the Israeli military on Wednesday.</s>Israel’s military has formally admitted that it destroyed a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007.

It said the air raid in the eastern Deir-al-Zour region had removed “an emerging existential threat to Israel and the entire region.”

The military said the reactor was close to being completed. It is long been thought Israel was responsible, but it never acknowledged this until now.

Syria has repeatedly denied that the bombed site was a nuclear reactor, the BBC reports.

The admission comes after Israeli military censors lifted an order banning officials from discussing the operation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said in the past that the site was “very likely” to have been a nuclear reactor.

It has also suggested that it was being built with the help of North Korea.

Syria, which has joined the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has denied this.

It released newly declassified materials related to the air raid on 5-6 September 2007.

They included what Israel said was footage of the strike on the al-Kubar facility in Syria’s desert region, as well as photographs of the covert operation.
Israel admits for the first time that it carried out an airstrike on a suspected nuclear reactor in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syria, on 6 September 2007. The strike allegedly killed ten North Korean workers.