Plan to wipe out Syria's deadly arsenal

The first shipment of chemical material has been removed from Syria under a US-Russian led deal.

Containers are piled up in the Gioia Tauro's port, Italy, which will be the site for the transfer of a shipment of chemical weapons materials from Syria. Picture: AP Source: AP

A SPECIALLY-equipped US naval ship departed for Italy on Monday on a groundbreaking mission to destroy Syria's most dangerous chemical agents, Pentagon officials said.

After setting off from the port of Norfolk on the Virginia coast, the MV Cape Ray is due to arrive in the southern port of Gioia Tauro in about "two to three weeks," spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters.

The move comes after the UN Security Council last year backed a US-Russian deal to remove and destroy Syria's chemical arsenal.

Investigators take samples from sand near a part of a missile that was suspected of carrying chemical agents in the countryside of Ain Terma, Syria. Picture: AP Source: AP

The agreement was brokered as a way to avert US missile strikes that Washington threatened after a chemical attack near Damascus, which Washington and other Western governments blamed on the regime.

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Under the accord, Syria's entire chemical arsenal is to be eliminated by June 30.

The 650-foot (197.5 meter) cargo ship has been outfitted with two large portable hydrolysis systems designed to neutralise the lethal chemical agents.

A man is treated after an alleged poison gas attack by troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in the rebel-held city of Daraya, southwest of Syria's capital Damascus, on January 13. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel sent a letter to Captain Rick Jordan and the 135-member crew telling them they were embarking on a "historic mission."

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"You are about to accomplish something no one has tried," Hagel wrote in the letter released by the Defense Department.

"You will be destroying at sea one of the world's largest stockpiles of chemical weapons and helping make a safer world," he wrote.

The first batch of Syria's chemical weapons materials are moved out of the country for destruction, beginning a crucial phase of an internationally backed disarmament program delayed by war and technical problems. Mana Rabiee reports.

The Cape Ray was initially supposed to head out earlier on Monday but engine problems delayed the scheduled departure, officials said.

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The ship has a crew of 35 civilians operating the vessel and will have a 63-member team in charge of the hydrolysis units as well as a security force on board.

The hydrolysis machines will mix heated water and other chemicals to break down the lethal agents, resulting in a sludge equivalent to industrial toxic waste.

Italian students hold a banner reading "No to decisions taken from above, Gioia tells you Enough!" during a rally to protest the arrival of chemical weapons from Syria. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

The arrangement will see some of the most dangerous agents neutralised on the US ship at sea, as no country was ready to host an operation to destroy the chemicals.

The chemicals will be loaded on to the Cape Ray at the Italian port and then taken to an undisclosed location for destruction. The Pentagon stressed the ship's work was not an environmental cause for alarm.

An aerial view of the Gioia Tauro port, Italy. The port is the site for the transfer of a shipment of chemical weapons materials from Syria. Picture: AP Source: AP

"No hydrolysis byproducts will be released into the sea or air. M/V Cape Ray will comply with all applicable international laws, regulations, and treaties," a spokesman said.

The materials are the deadliest in Syria's 1,290-tonne declared arsenal and include mustard gas and the ingredients for the nerve agents sarin and VX.

The destruction of the chemicals could take between 45 to 90 days, according to the Pentagon.

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