Syrian army fights for road needed to remove chemical weapons
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - Syrian forces went on the offensive on Saturday against rebels positioned along a major highway linking the capital with the coast, rebels said, a strategic road that is likely to be used to extract chemical weapons from the country.
The road passes through the mountainous area of Qalamoun, roughly 50 km (30 miles) north of Damascus, a region that stretches along the Lebanese border and is one of Syria's most heavily militarised districts.
Captain Islam Alloush, spokesman for the Army of Islam, the largest alliance of rebel groups in the capital, said that fighting was intense in the small highway town of Qara.
Diplomats say Syrian authorities have identified the road north from Damascus towards Homs and the coast as the preferred route to transport chemical agents under a U.S.-Russian accord to eliminate them from the country's protracted civil war.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/11/16/uk-syria-crisis-road-idUKBRE9AF06B20131116
Not sure where the chemicals are going :
Albanian 'no' deals blow to Syria chemical weapons plan.
(Reuters) - Albania rejected on Friday a U.S. request to host the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, dealing a blow to a U.S.-Russian accord to eliminate such arms from the country's protracted civil war.
Negotiations went down to the wire as the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague hit the deadline on Friday for a step-by-step plan to get rid of 1,300 tonnes of Syria's sarin, mustard gas and other agents.
After the Albanian decision, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning body adopted a plan on Friday night that set out deadlines in the destruction process but did not name a host country for the effort or provide details on security arrangements.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/11/16/uk-syria-crisis-chemical-idUKBRE9AE0I920131116
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