The mystery deepens around the air raid on September 6 on what was said to be a Syrian nuclear site.

Israeli and Arab sources have been quoted on Al-Jazeera this morning as saying that Israeli Air Force jets provided cover for the American planes that were armed with tactical nuclear weapons.

This is from Al-Jazeera – so it may not be true, of course.

It is also possible that Syria is behind the story on Al-Jazeera. The Baath party can clean up the site as much as possible but traces of radiation will remain. The regime needs an alibi for their activities there, so why not blame it on the Americans?

The Syrian propaganda machine may also be trying to suggest that Israel is not capable of defending itself without American help.

“Al-Jazeera”: US Air Force carried out raid on Syrian nuke site

Nov 2, 2007, The Jerusalem PostThe September 6 raid over Syria was carried out by the US Air Force, the Al-Jazeera Web site reported Friday morning. The Web site quoted Israeli and Arab sources as saying that two strategic US jets carrying tactical nuclear weapons carried out an attack on a nuclear site under construction.
The sources were quoted as saying that Israeli F-15 and F-16 jets provided cover for the US planes.
The sources added that each US plane carried one tactical nuclear weapon and that the site was hit by one bomb and was totally destroyed.
The statement seemed to be in line with previous remarks by a Syrian source that six planes had participated in the strike in the area of Dir a-Zur. The Syrian source had claimed that Syrian radars picked up six planes that took part in the raid, in addition to 25 planes that flew over Cypriot airspace at the time of the attack.

The Kuwaiti newspaper Al Watan reported last month that “U.S. jets provided aerial cover for Israeli strike aircraft during the attack on Syria,” without giving details. For more background, see here.

For “before and after” photos of the Syrian site, see here.