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Israel

Operation Orchard: how Israeli jets flew at low altitude to avoid detection in Syria

Israel had never admitted to the 2007 air strike deep inside Syria - until now

March 21, 2018 09:05
Israeli F-15Is and F-16Is were used in the strike
3 min read

Israel’s strike on the North Korean-built reactor, half an hour after midnight on September 6, 2007, came after a lengthy intelligence-collecting operation — but it began on a hunch.

After it had failed to detect the Libyan nuclear programme, which was declared and dismantled in 2003, Israeli authorities began questioning their previous assumptions about which of its Arab enemies may be developing nuclear capabilities as well. 

Some Israeli intelligence officials suspected Syria was trying acquire nuclear weapons as early as 2004, but it was only two years later that a square-shaped building in northeast Syria, near the Euphrates river, caught their attention.

The shape of what became known as “the cube” indicated it may be a North Korean designed plutonium reactor.