Jerusalem
We bombed Syria: Israel admitted for the first time this week that its military bombed a suspected plutonium reactor in Syria in 2007. The Israel Defense Forces said its jets hit the facility in the Deir el-Zour province, some 280 miles northeast of Damascus, as it was nearing completion. Experts from North Korea helped construct the reactor, the IDF said. Israel’s intelligence minister, Yisrael Katz, said the operation was proof that “Israel will never allow nuclear weaponry to be in the hands of those who threaten its existence—Syria then, and Iran today.” It’s not clear whether Israel confirmed the bombing as a warning to Iran or because former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who ordered the strike, has a memoir coming out.