Oh, you’ve got a good theory. Could be correct.
The problem that I have is that Syria has no compelling reason to possess something that would cause/give-excuse-for the U.S. or Israel to nuke Syria.
Consider that Syria has the largest chemical WMD program in the Mid-East. Nukes offer very little killing power over that arsenal...and both require delivery vehicles.
But if Syria gets a nuke, then Israel and the U.S. have carte blanc to nuke Syria at a whim.
So I lean more toward a major terror leader being the target of the 9/6 raids. Could have just been long range ICBM’s that were finally modified to accept city-killer-sized chemical WMD warheads, too. Next theory in line would be some form of massive currency counterfeiting operation.
but yeah, it could have been a nuke there.
Were ground teams there? Absolutely. Could have been unmanned ground vehicles, SCUBA teams in the river, SpecOps, or a variety of options, but there was an Isreali ground presence there and yes, drop tanks *could* have been planted in Turkey (though I presume it more likely that the drop tanks were real as they were sighted by Syria’s radar).
And the 'item' could be anything, even a HVT (human) like you suggest.