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Syria has built missile facility at suspect site: diplomats
Vienna (AFP) Feb 25, 2009 Syria has told the UN nuclear watchdog that a suspect site bombed by Israeli planes in 2007 is now a missile facility, diplomats close to the IAEA revealed Wednesday. The head of Syria's Atomic Energy Commission, Ibrahim Othman, made the revelation to a closed-door briefing of the International Atomic Energy Agency late Tuesday, diplomats who attended the meeting told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. The US alleges the remote desert site, known alternatively as Al-Kibar or Dair Alzour, had been a covert nuclear reactor being built with North Korea's help and very near completion, until it was razed to the ground by Israeli bombers in September 2007. But Damascus has consistently rejected the claims, maintaining it was a disused military facility. Soon after the bombing, Syria levelled the site and built a new structure there that resembled the former main building. IAEA inspectors visited Al-Kibar last June, but have so far declined to reveal the nature of the new building, even when pressed on the issue by member states late last year. "It was Othman, who revealed the nature of the site" at a preparatory briefing Tuesday ahead of the IAEA's March board meeting next week, diplomats said. Last year, the watchdog said a "significant" number of particles of man-made uranium had been found at Al-Kibar. And in a report last week, it revealed that even more unexplained man-made uranium had turned up in the samples taken from the site which would require a clear explanation on the part of Syria has to how it got there. In the past, Damascus has argued that the uranium could have come from the Israeli bombs which flattened Al-Kibar. But the IAEA has effectively ruled out such an explanation. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Aspide 2000 Establishes Another Exceptional Record
London, UK (SPX) Feb 25, 2009The Aspide 2000 missile has set yet another exceptional record in its long career. During an air defence exercise that took place at the end of January 2009, the Amoun battery of Kuwait's Air Defence Brigade carried out five Aspide 2000 missile launches against a series of air targets simulating different types of attack scenarios. |
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