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Journalism of Courage
A US think tank on Wednesday made public satellite images of a site in Syria that bore similarities to a North Korean nuclear reaction and may have been targeted in an Israeli strike.
The images were taken by Digital Globe, a commercial satellite firm, just over a month before a Sept 6 Israeli air strike on a target inside Syria. No post-strike images of the site were shown.
US news reports have said the Israeli target was believed to be a suspected nuclear site, possibly in the early stages of construction with North Korean help, but Israel has refused comment and Syria has denied the existence of a nuclear site.
The images showed a tall building about 780 metres east of the Euphrates River in eastern Syria and what appears to be a water pumping station directly on the river, the Institute for Science and International Security said.
“The tall building in the image may house a reactor under construction and the pump station along the river may have been intended to supply cooling water to the reactor,” said David Alright and Paul Brannan, the experts who analysed the images.
They said the tall building was similar in shape to the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, but was not far enough along in its construction to make a definitive comparison.
A secondary structure also appears in the images but its purpose was unknown, they said.
“Trucks can be seen approximately 100 meters to the east of the tall building. This, along with evidence of heavy machinery tracks around this site, indicates recent construction activity,” they said.
