[caption id="attachment_51578" align="alignright" width="234"] The headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague[/caption]
A nine-member team of international disarmament experts with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has started work in Syria.
The team, which is part of a larger 19-member group, left the hotel in Damascus on Thursday.
The experts are assigned with implementation of a United Nations resolution aimed at eliminating Syrias chemical weapons.
On September 14, Russia and the United States agreed on a deal under which Syria must account for its chemical weapons stockpiles within a week and see them eliminated by the middle of 2014. The UN adopted a resolution in this regard later.
Syria has already supplied a list of its chemical weapons and facilities and is due to provide further details by October 4.
Under the Russia-US deal, the OPCW team should finish its work by November. Some arsenals will be eliminated safely and destroyed outside Syria, while others will be destroyed inside the country.
The OPCW mission comes after a UN team of chemical weapons inspectors wrapped up its investigation into a deadly chemical attack, which had been carried out on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21.
The United States and its allies accused the Syrian government of being behind the attack. Damascus rejected the allegation and said the militants had conducted the attack to draw in military intervention.