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An Israel Air Force F-16 war plane taking off for a mission in Lebanon from an air force base in southern Israel last year. (File / AP)
Last update - 05:33 08/10/2007
Washington Post: Several N. Korean scientists hurt in IAF strike in Syria
By Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: IAF, Syria, North Korea 

WASHINGTON - A top-secret report by the U.S. intelligence services says several North Korean scientists were injured in Israel's strike in Syria last month, top Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland reported in the paper Sunday.

Some two weeks ago, British newspaper The Sunday Times reported that diplomats in North Korea and China believed a number of North Koreans had been killed in the strike, based on reports reaching Asian governments about conversations between Chinese and North Korean officials.

In his article about the efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear program, Hoagland said the site of the attack was a plutonium enrichment facility for the Syrian nuclear program.
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According to Hoagland, Israel sent soil samples from the site and other evidence to the United States both before and after the strike on September 6. Hoagland's report appears to corroborate details reported by the Sunday Times two weeks prior.

The Washington Post report is based on Hoagland's talks with a senior official in the American defense establishment, and with other sources involved with the attack.

Media reports are providing an increasingly fuller picture of the circumstances surrounding the incident, and the activities undertaken at the site.

Over the weekend, the American television network ABC reported that President George W. Bush's administration had been involved in the preparations for the strike since the summer. According to ABC, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had objected to the plan, pushing the intended date from mid-July to September.

American and British media reported that Israeli special forces were operating near the site during the attack and beforehand to collect intelligence in preparation for the operation.

North Korea was one of the first countries in the world to condemn Israel for the strike just several days after it became known. But North Korea and Syria denied that the site was linked to the North Korean nuclear program, which is due to be terminated in accordance with international agreements Pyongyang has signed.
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  1.   No fanatic?s Islamic nation has right for nuclear weapons 01:35  |  e.m 08/10/07
  2.   scientists hurt 01:38  |  Shmuelshachor 08/10/07
  3.   Good thing they attacked 02:03  |  Gordon 08/10/07
  4.   #1 e.m. 02:09  |  Boycott 08/10/07
  5.   They don`t need them anymore anyhow. 02:21  |  Realist 08/10/07
  6.   Now we really know why the Syrian`s 02:26  |  * BEN JABO 08/10/07
  7.   Give them medical treatment in Israel!!! 02:29  |  Dr. Jack 08/10/07
  8.   yet, Syria is still threatening 02:42  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 08/10/07
  9.   Obvious! 03:01  |  Webster 08/10/07
  10.   Plutonium enrichment only used for nuclear weapons creation 03:02  |  Johnny 08/10/07
  11.   We did what was needed to be done and 03:07  |  Dakkar 08/10/07
  12.   Israel and USA must get other nations 03:30  |  Nechama 08/10/07
  13.   Pu Enrichment? 03:37  |  Edmund Fitzgerald 08/10/07
  14.   plutonium enrichment 03:42  |  anonymous 08/10/07
  15.   GIVE ME A BREAK 03:44  |  Realist 08/10/07
  16.   NK fiasco 04:18  |  hamsi5 08/10/07
  17.   "Empty military site", with North Korean ghosts. 04:41  |  Fortuna Benmayor 08/10/07
  18.   Ha ha ha ha 05:05  |  Marcel 08/10/07
  19.   #18 naive?... 05:32  |  Tom 08/10/07
  20.   #18 - No Marcel 05:53  |  JES 08/10/07
  21.   To realist: the secret was leaked after Israel smashed the target 06:10  |  Laughing Man 08/10/07
  22.   Washington Post`s Judith Miller 06:14  |  Arik Silverman 08/10/07
  23.   I Don`t Know About This 06:40  |  Jeff Northridge 08/10/07
  24.   to #19 et 20 06:45  |  Marcel 08/10/07
  25.   To # 15 06:52  |  Al 08/10/07
  26.   the same old story... 06:58  |  maria 08/10/07
  27.   Ennemy Nuclear scientists 07:00  |  Tallyho ! 08/10/07
  28.   surprise for iran/syria 07:01  |  Mark 08/10/07
  29.   Hoagland is just repeating the same rumours 07:06  |  Rowan Berkeley 08/10/07
  30.   Re:Boycott#4 07:27  |  e.m 08/10/07
  31.   to Marcel 18 08:15  |  American Analyst 08/10/07
  32.   APOLOGIES REQUIRED FROM NUMEROUS POSTERS 08:31  |  paul harris 08/10/07
  33.   to Edmund Fitzgerald 08:37  |  Shahin 08/10/07
  34.   propaganda again 08:53  |  Shahin 08/10/07
  35.   Sorry it had to be... 09:08  |  Esther 08/10/07
  36.   Maybe next time 09:22  |  Indrajaya 08/10/07
  37.   Shahim 09:38  |  Igor 08/10/07
  38.   #4 Girlcott - Yes 09:51  |  Yonatan 08/10/07
  39.   Reports meet widespread disbelief and apathy 09:51  |  Michael 08/10/07
  40.   #12 and #13 "Plutonium enrichment" 09:57  |  Yonatan 08/10/07
  41.   To Shahin #27 10:04  |  Jack 08/10/07
  42.   #39 Michael of UK 10:59  |  Yonatan 08/10/07
  43.   Propaganda again 11:00  |  Petra 08/10/07
  44.   Maybe next time Israel will do some major damage you can deny 11:01  |  Petra 08/10/07
  45.   #23, Jeff Northridge 11:03  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 08/10/07
  46.   #39 MICHAEL LOOKS THE OTHER WAY 11:05  |  paul harris 08/10/07
  47.   Hitler, Saddam and Assad 11:16  |  Sherlock Holmes 08/10/07
  48.   Wrong way! The US should offer Assad their nuclear shield 11:36  |  Karl 08/10/07
  49.   To e.m 11:41  |  Proud Muslim 08/10/07
  50.   Syria said it was a farm, So what kind of farm was it? 11:41  |  JC 08/10/07
  51.   To Sherlock Holmes 11:46  |  Historian 08/10/07
  52.   ANOTHER FOAM BUBBLE STORY 11:54  |  TrippleJump 08/10/07
  53.   #49 THE PEOPLE OF MUSLIM COUNTRIES HAVE NO CHOICE INTHE MATTER 11:54  |  paul harris 08/10/07
  54.   Story not credible in the abscence of ANY evidence! 11:54  |  Eric 08/10/07
  55.   The WP article wouldn´t do Shmuelshachor (2) 11:57  |  Karl 08/10/07
  56.   To Maria 11:57  |  marc 08/10/07
  57.   This is another James Bond scenarios... 11:59  |  James 08/10/07
  58.   Shahin # 34 12:03  |  ChanahS 08/10/07
  59.   HAPPY TO HEAR THAT THE NK 12:34  |  Robert 08/10/07
  60.   #53Paul-Especially that one about NOBODY creating it. 12:37  |  Abraham Ivri 08/10/07
  61.   Riught (14). The article leaving us in the dark 12:37  |  Karl 08/10/07
  62.   Realist 12:48  |  Susan 08/10/07
  63.   Ben Jabo and monopoly 12:49  |  Truths 08/10/07
  64.   ZIONST PROPGANDA! WAIT FOR THE TRUTH TO BE TOLD BY SEYMOUR HERSH 12:52  |  JACKAL 08/10/07
  65.   Proud Muslim 12:55  |  World Citizen 08/10/07
  66.   Once again 12:57  |  Mark Lincoln 08/10/07
  67.   Poor Syria 13:00  |  Star of David 08/10/07
  68.   Seymour Hersh sees less 13:23  |  Jasmine Murphy 08/10/07
  69.   #32 paul harris 13:24  |  Daybreak 08/10/07
  70.   # 4 Boycott -"Just how do you propose doing that? " 13:26  |  17 08/10/07
  71.   Credible? 13:45  |  Murray 08/10/07
  72.   NEWS AND PROPAGANDA: THE DIFFERENCE 13:50  |  Marcel 08/10/07