MOSCOW, October 16 (RIA Novosti) – Experts from the global chemical weapons watchdog said Wednesday that critical equipment has been destroyed at six chemical weapon sites in Syria.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said in a statement that its mission team “has now conducted verification activities at a total of 11 sites that are identified in Syria’s disclosure.”
Current mission goals (through November 1) include making production facilities – including mixing/filling plants – inoperable, and beginning destruction of unloaded chemical weapons munitions, the statement said.
It noted that cooperation with the UN in support of the OPCW mission in Syria “has been excellent and the morale of the joint mission teams remains high.”
OPCW director general Ahmet Uzumcu said on October 9 that specialists from his organization had earmarked more than 20 sites to visit in coming weeks. Syrian authorities intend to render all chemical-arms-making facilities unusable by November 1, he added.
US President Barack Obama’s administration accused Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government of being behind an August 21 chemical weapons attack outside Damascus that Washington says left more than 1,400 dead. The Syrian government in turn accused the rebel groups it has been battling since March 2011 of being behind the attack, and agreed to a Russia-brokered deal to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal by the middle of next year in order to avoid military action threatened by the US.
More than two years of fighting between government and opposition forces in Syria has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people, according to UN estimates.
