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Israel aware of additional Syrian nuclear facilities

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Defence Minister Ehud Barak said yesterday that Israeli intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are aware of an additional Syrian nuclear facility. Barak said that UN inspectors are working on a plan to inspect the site. The defence minister made his comments yesterday after a German newspaper, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, presented satellite images of the location of a Syrian nuclear site that is suspected of containing a small uranium conversion facility. The site lies in the town of Marj as-Sultan, fifteen kilometres east of Damascus and is related to the nuclear reactor project at al Kibar that was reportedly bombed by Israel in September 2007.

Satellite images of the site obtained by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) from July 2008 show a large amount of activity on the ground with the movement of trucks and vehicles involving the pouring of materials onto the ground. The ISIS assumed that this could be the laying of concrete in attempt to counter the environment sampling and hide uranium levels for when IAEA inspectors investigate the site.