Suspect site razed by Syria: nuclear study group

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - New satellite pictures show Syria has razed the site of what might have been a secret nuclear reactor under construction apparently bombed by Israel last month, an atomic research institute says.

Syria has denied illicitly hiding a nuclear site from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and said the only facility in the area in question was a desertification research centre.

In commercial satellite images taken on Wednesday and issued by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a suspected reactor building visible in aerial photos before the September 6 air raid had vanished and the ground underneath scraped clean, the institute said.

"Dismantling and removing the building at such a rapid pace dramatically complicates any (IAEA) inspection of the facilities and suggests Syria may be trying to hide what was there," the report by the Washington-based group said.

Tractors or bulldozers could be seen in the pictures where the building once stood, said ISIS, which is headed by former U.N. weapons inspector David Albright and tracks nuclear activity that could pose bomb-proliferation threats.

What appeared to be a trench might point to the Syrians excavating buried pipelines running between the demolished building and a nearby structure still standing, which could have been a pumping station to supply water to the reactor, it said.

The Vienna-based IAEA had no immediate comment.

NO CONCLUSIONS YET