Syria Chemical Weapons Removal Begins

A team of international weapons experts began destroying Syria’s chemical arsenal on Sunday, the first step in the United Nations resolution after August’s deadly nerve gas attack killed an estimated 1,400. Syria is believed to have more than 1,000 tons of sarin gas, the agent likely used in the August 21 attack, as well as the blister agent sulphur mustard and other banned chemicals. Under the terms of the agreement that U.S. and Russia negotiated, all chemical weapons in Syria will have to be destroyed by the middle of 2014. This is the first time the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has been asked to destroy chemical weapons during a conflict.