UN team of experts enter Damascus to begin destroying Syria’s chemical weapons (Photo courtesy of Washington Post)

A team of inspectors have begun the process of destroying Syria’s chemical weapons and production facilities. A source within the international mission said on Sunday that members of the team from the UN and The Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have left for a site where they are beginning verification and destruction. The task is huge, as Syria's arsenal is believed to include more than 1,000 tonnes of sarin, mustard gas, and other banned chemicals stored at an estimated 45 sites across the war-torn country. The mission is the first in the organization’s history to take place in a country wracked by civil war. Under a UN resolution, Syria's chemical weapons arsenal is to be destroyed by mid-2014.