Israeli air strike on Syria raises new and troubling questions

"Where was the alleged truck coming from and where was it going? Why has the aggression happened in the northern parts of Syria and in the vicinity of our shared borders with Turkey?"

The attack is also focusing attention on Syria's relationship with North Korea. The New York Times quoted a Bush administration official who said that Israel has carried out spy sorties over Syria to photograph suspected nuclear installations that rely on material supplied by North Korea.

The administration official said Israeli officials believed that North Korea might be unloading some of its nuclear material on Syria.

"The Israelis think North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria what little they have left," the official said. He said it was unclear whether the Israeli strike had produced any evidence that might validate that belief.

Citing intelligence provided to the US by Israel, The Washington Post reports that the fear of Syrian-North Korean nuclear cooperation is based on information collected over the past six months.

"The evidence … includes dramatic satellite imagery that led some U.S. officials to believe that the facility could be used to produce material for nuclear weapons.

The new information, particularly images received in the past 30 days, has been restricted to a few senior officials under the instructions of national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, leaving many in the intelligence community unaware of it or uncertain of its significance, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Some cautioned that initial reports of suspicious activity are frequently reevaluated over time and were skeptical that North Korea and Syria, which have cooperated on missile technology, would have a joint venture in the nuclear arena.

However in the absence of any on-the-record details of the incident, the flurry of anonymous official commentary is only likely to enhance the ambiguity surrounding the strike rather than clear the fog. A BBC analysis concluded:

There are still more questions than answers in this affair. More information is slowly seeping out.

But in many ways it is remarkable that in an age of instant news and the worldwide web spreading information almost at the speed of light, there can still be episodes like this that remain shrouded in so many layers of mystery.

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