Chemical warfare
Chemical warfareIDF spokesman's unit

Syria has destroyed all of its declared chemical weapons production facilities, according to a Reuters report based on documents provided by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

OPCW teams have inspected 21 of Syria’s 23 chemical weapons site. The remaining two sites are deemed too dangerous to inspect due to fighting in the area, but equipment at those two sites has been moved elsewhere and inspected there, the agency said.

According to the report, the document stated, “The OPCW is satisfied it has verified, and seen destroyed, all critical production, mixing, filling equipment from all 23 sites.”

The group is now moving to “phase 3” of a plan to demolish all of Syria’s chemical weapons. The third stage is to destroy the weapons themselves.

The timetable for the third phase gives Syria until mid-2014 to destroy the weapons.

A former Syrian general has warned that Bashar al-Assad prepared for the chemical weapons crackdown in advance by hiding his weapons stockpile with the Lebanese group Hezbollah, a close ally.