(Reuters) - Syria
has started the long-delayed destruction of a dozen underground bunkers
and hangars that were used for the production and storage of chemical
weapons, diplomatic sources told Reuters on Monday. Damascus last year
handed over 1,300 metric tonnes of toxic agents after joining the
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), but it is
months behind schedule in destroying the facilities used to make and
store its deadly stockpile. Work
at a first tunnel began on Dec. 24, but was delayed by winter storms.
The site will be sealed off with cement walls by the end of January,
said one source in The Hague, where the global chemical weapons watchdog
is based. "The work
finally began, which is good news," said another source. "There were
some technical issues and the bad weather has slowed up the process." Syria
joined the OPCW after a sarin gas attack killed more than 1,000 people
in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta on Aug. 21, 2013, prompting threats of
military intervention by the United States, which blamed President
Bashar al-Assad's government. Assad's government and rebels blamed each
other. U.S. President Barack Obama called off military action against Damascus after Syria
agreed to destroy its chemical stockpiles. A year later the United
States began a bombing campaign against Islamic State militants in Syria with the tacit approval of Assad, which still continues. More than 200,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in the Syrian civil war since March 2011. The
head of the OPCW is expected to provide an update on the destruction of
Syria's production and storage sites, part of its obligations under
OPCW membership, to foreign governments at closed door meetings in The
Hague on Wednesday. The
technical details of how the seven hangars are to be demolished with
explosives are still being drawn up with experts at the OPCW, the
sources said. The sources declined to be identified while sharing
information about the program before it is officially made public. Repeated
delays in destroying the facilities led to protests from Washington
last month, when the U.S. representative to the OPCW, Bob Mikulak,
called on Syria to speed up the process under tighter outside monitoring. An
OPCW fact finding mission has been investigating the use of chlorine
bombs, which have killed and injured dozens of people in Syrian villages in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria. Syria denies allegations by Western governments that it withheld part of its chemical weapons stockpile. Western diplomats said Syria
has failed to provide any documentation about the chemical weapons
program, which was built up over decades and produced mass quantities of
toxic nerve agents for warfare.
Syria begins destruction of chemical weapons facilities - sources

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