Israel has for the first time confirmed that it destroyed a suspected nuclear reactor being built in Syria in 2007.

The military said fighter jets bombed the al-Kibar facility in Deir al-Zour province, 450km (280 miles) north-east of Damascus, as it neared completion.

Syria's government has repeatedly denied that it was building a reactor.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was determined to prevent its enemies from obtaining nuclear weapons.

"The Israeli government, the Israel Defense Forces and the Mossad [intelligence services] prevented Syria from developing nuclear capability. They are worthy of full praise for this," he wrote on Twitter.

"Israel's policy was and remains consistent - to prevent our enemies from arming themselves with nuclear weapons."

In 1981, in a surprise attack, Israeli jets destroyed a nuclear reactor being constructed south-east of Baghdad by the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein.

What has the Israeli military revealed?
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a "vast intelligence effort" began in late 2004, when Israeli agents obtained information that foreign experts - believed to be North Korean - were helping Syria with a nuclear project.

After the Israeli intelligence community located the building site and predicted that the nuclear reactor would turn operational by the end of 2007, the IDF made plans for an air strike dubbed "Operation Outside the Box".

At 22:30 on 5 September 2007, F-16 and F-15 jets took off from two bases in southern Israel and flew towards Deir al-Zour, via the Mediterranean Sea and the Syrian-Turkish border.

The jets returned four hours later, after conducting a strike that totally disabled the reactor and caused irreversible damage, according to the IDF.

The IDF said it was decided not to confirm the strike or publish any information afterwards "in light of the highly sensitive security situation".

The Syrian military did not retaliate after the attack. President Bashar al-Assad said only that Israel had "bombed buildings and construction related to the military", which were "not used".

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concluded in 2011 that the site was "very likely" to have been a nuclear reactor.

Syria had signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) before the strike, which gave it the right to build a reactor to generate electricity. But it was also obliged to notify the IAEA of any plans to construct a nuclear facility.

Israel, which is not a signatory to the NPT, is widely believed to have a nuclear arsenal - though it has neither confirmed nor denied this.

The IDF also noted that Islamic State (IS) militants fighting in Syria's civil war seized control of Deir al-Zour in 2014.

"One could only imagine how much havoc they could have wreaked with a nuclear facility in their hands," it said