Chemical experts begin destroying Syria's weapons arsenal
United Nations-backed weapons inspectors have begun the first phase of destroying Syria's weapons stockpile.
A joint team from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and UN staff have destroyed missile warheads and aerial chemical bombs.
They also destroyed equipment used to mix chemicals to create the lethal nerve agents and fill warheads in the field.
It is not known where the destruction took place.
The team arrived in Damascus nearly a week ago and is aiming to complete its mission in about nine months.
The mission is the first in OPCW history to take place in a country wracked by civil war.
The task is huge, as Syria's arsenal is believed to include more than 1,000 tonnes of sarin, mustard gas and other banned chemicals stored at an estimated 45 sites across the war-torn country.
Washington and Moscow hammered out a deal for the mission after an August 21 chemical weapons attack in Damascus prompted US threats of air strikes against the Syrian government.
The Syrian government and the rebels blame each other for the chemical incident, in which more than 1,400 were killed.
The Syrian regime acknowledged for the first time on July 23, 2012, that it had chemical weapons and threatened to use them in case of a Western military intervention, but never against the Syrian population.
One of the few countries not to have signed the Chemical Weapons Convention until last month, Syria began its chemical weapons program in the 1970s with the help of Egypt and the then Soviet Union.
More than 100,000 people have died in Syria's conflict, which began in early 2011 with peaceful demonstrations seeking more democracy but has deteriorated into sectarian civil war.