Israel raid on Syria triggered by arms fears: U.S. sources

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

Amid widespread media speculation and a blanket silence from the Israeli and U.S. government, nothing is certain.

One political source in the region told Reuters he believed that Israel dropped bombs in an empty area in the Syrian desert as a diversion during a clandestine ground operation by commandos.

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

An Israeli government spokesman again declined all comment on Wednesday. Washington, for which Syria forms part of a hostile alliance with Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, has also kept silent.

U.S. officials confirmed Israel launched air strikes against Syria last week but would not discuss targets. Syria has complained to the United Nations that Israeli aircraft "dropped munitions". The munitions did no damage.

Its U.N. ambassador said Israel wanted to torpedo efforts for peace in the Middle East.

Israeli President Shimon Peres called the episode "spilt milk" but gave no details of what actually happened and said Israel still wanted peace with Syria.

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

Israeli newspapers gave prominent coverage to a CNN report quoting U.S. sources saying that Israeli aircraft and possibly ground troops struck Iranian arms bound for Hezbollah, with which Israel fought a month-long war last year.

One Israeli newspaper Web site referred to an Arab Israeli newspaper report which quoted Israeli sources as saying Israeli planes bombed and destroyed a northern Syrian missile base that was financed by Iran.

One U.S. diplomatic source told Reuters that Deir az-Zor, the northeastern area where Syria said the Israeli bombs caused no damage, was suspected by U.S. 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 U.S. official and former U.S. intelligence officials said this seemed unlikely and technically difficult.

"TARGET"

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.