Syria hands over last of declared chemical weapons

AMSTERDAM (AP) — The organization charged with overseeing the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons program says the last of the country’s acknowledged stockpile has been handed over.

Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons director general Ahmet Uzumcu said Monday the final 8 percent of the 1,300-ton stockpile has been loaded onto ships in the Syrian port of Latakia. Uzumcu was speaking at a press conference in The Hague.

Syria’s government agreed to surrender its arsenal last fall when the U.S. threatened punitive missile strikes after a deadly chemical attack on a rebel-held suburb of Damascus.