Chemical team set to start destroying Syria arsenal - reports

A team of 20 international experts are leaving to begin the "verification and destruction" of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, agencies report citing own sources.

The source stated the team from the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) “have left for a site where they are beginning verification and destruction.”

“Today is the first day of destruction, in which heavy vehicles are going to run over and thus destroy missile warheads, aerial chemical bombs and mobile and static mixing and filling units,” the anonymous official, told AFP. 

The team crossed into Damascus on Tuesday tasked with dismantling Assad's estimated 1,000-ton chemical weapons stockpile.  

A UN official confirmed to AP that the weapons inspectors have begun to destroy the stockpile and machinery.  

Earlier this week, a Hague-based OPCW official stated that all “expedient methods” would be used to ensure Syria’s production facilities would be rendered unusable. He added that procedures might entail the use of explosives, sledgehammers, or the pouring in of concrete. 

“We're very transparent. The experts can go to every site. They are going to have all the data from our government,” Assad told German magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday. 

The mission follows a UN resolution which demanded that Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal be destroyed. The procedure to purge the country of chemical weapons stocks has a target finish date of mid-2014. 

The US and its allies have been threatening Syria with military action in response to the August 21 attack in Damascus's eastern Ghouta suburbs, when UN experts say sarin gas was used “on a large scale.” 

Both Syria’s government and rebel forces have accused each other of using chemical weapons, and both sides have denied carrying out attacks. 

The US and Britain were quick to accuse the Assad regime of perpetrating the August 21 attack, based on the warheads’ technical characteristics, established by UN experts. 

Russia and Syria accused the US and its allies of jumping too quickly to conclusions. Damascus claimed that the UN had ignored evidence passed to them confidentially. Russia, who believes the Aug.21 attack was a provocation by the rebels, has been calling for a so-called “Geneva-2” peace conference. 

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