Sept 23, 2007 Did you know???

Blast at secret Syrian missile site kills dozens

An accidental explosion in a secret weapons facility in Syria killed dozens of Syrian and Iranian military engineers as they were attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a Scud missile, according to an authoritative military journal.

Fifteen military personnel and “dozens” of Iranian advisers died when the fuel for the missile caught fire and the weapon exploded, according to unnamed Syrian sources quoted by Jane’s Defence Weekly.

The report said that the explosion sent out a cloud of chemical and nerve gases, including the deadly VX and Sarin agents as well as mustard gas, across the facility in the northern city of Aleppo. The claims could not be verified independently by sources in London and the United States.

Jane’s claimed that the engineers were trying to weaponise a Syrian-made Scud missile with a range of about 300 miles (480km) when the explosion occurred. The Syrians and Iranians are thought to have been working closely together on developing a more effective chemical warhead for the Scud ballistic missile system.

Both Syria and Iran have benefited from an advanced version of the Scud, which was designed by the North Koreans. Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane’s Strategic Weapon Systems, said that North Korea had managed to reduce the weight of the missile and increase the strength of the outer casing, as well as change some of the components inside. The technology was passed on to Syria and Iran, and “they put their heads together”, Mr Lennox said.

Reports of the accident coincided with widespread speculation that an audacious Israeli airstrike against another Syrian facility two weeks ago may have destroyed a nuclear shipment from North Korea.

Canice comment: That this is being reported in Jane's to me gives it a lot of credibility. They are not given to speculation, and have often been used asan authoritative source on military matters, by both civilian and military users throughout the world.