Israel raid on Syria triggered by arms fears, US sources

LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) A mysterious Israeli air raid in Syria may have been triggered by suspicions Damascus is building nuclear arms, to test new Syrian air defences or to stop Iranian weapons reaching Hezbollah, US and Western officials say.

Amid widespread media speculation and a blanket silence from the Israeli and US governments, however, nothing is certain.

Recalling the failure of US forces to find much evidence of Iraqi secret weapons whose alleged development was part of the justification for the 2003 invasion, some analysts caution that there seems little evidence for suspicions against Syria.

An Israeli government spokesman again today declined all comment on the incident, over which Syria has complained to the United Nations saying Israeli aircraft ''dropped munitions''.

The US government, for which Syria forms part of a hostile lliance with Iran and Hezbollah, has also declined to comment.

Israeli President Shimon Peres today called the episode ''spilt milk'' but gave no details of what actually did happen and insisted that Israel still wanted peace with Syria.

But Israeli public radio stations, which like all media in the country are under military censorship, led Wednesday's bulletins with a New York Times report that US officials said Israel did carry out an air strike on September 6 and that US officials believed Syria may have obtained nuclear material.

Israeli newspapers gave prominent coverage to a CNN report quoting US sources saying that Israeli aircraft and possibly ground troops struck Iranian arms bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, with which Israel fought a war last year.

One US diplomatic source told Reuters that Deir az-Zor, the northeastern area where Syria said the Israeli bombs caused no damage, was suspected by US officials of being the focus of some form of cooperation on nuclear weapons with North Korea.

''The suspicion is that North Korea is outsourcing uranium enrichment to Damascus,'' the diplomatic source said.

However, another US official and former US intelligence officials said this seemed unlikely and technically difficult.

''TARGET'' The New York Times quoted an unnamed Pentagon official saying Israeli jets struck at least one target in northeastern Syria but adding that it was not clear what was hit.

One US official source told Reuters there was some concern in Washington that North Korea had hidden uranium enrichment facilities abroad. But the source added that it seemed unlikely Pyongyang would risk derailing a deal with the United States to end its nuclear arms programme by sending material to Syria.

In Vienna, two senior diplomats familiar with the International Atomic Energy Agency said they knew of no serious suspicions of nuclear links between Syria and North Korea.

The New York Times quoted U.S. officials saying Israel's most likely targets in Syria were Iranian arms for Hezbollah, against whom Israel fought a month-long war last year.

The paper also quoted one US official saying Israel believed that North Korea was selling Syria nuclear material.

One former US intelligence official who still follows the West Asia closely said he believed previous comments from Western diplomats in Damascus that last week's incident centred on an attempt by Israel to test whether Syria's air defences had been improved since purchases of new equipment from Russia.

The former official said he doubted Syria had significant secret weapons. Another former US intelligence official said he was not aware of serious suspicions in Washington that Syria had a nuclear programme of any kind.

REUTERS SG ND1530