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Chemical weapons inspectors attacked in Syria, staff safe

A convoy of chemical weapons inspectors from the international watchdog, The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), overseeing the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons program came under fire on Tuesday in Syria but all staff members were safe, the organization said.

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Local Committee of Arbeen/AP/File
In this Aug. 29, 2013 file photo, members of the UN investigation team take samples from the ground in the Damascus countryside of Zamalka, Syria. The chemical weapons watchdog that is overseeing the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons program said Tuesday, May 27, 2014 that a convoy of its inspectors has come under attack, but all are safe.
  • By ALBERT AJI and TOBY STERLING Associated Press

| DAMASCUS, Syria

A convoy of inspectors from the international watchdog overseeing the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons program came under fire on Tuesday in Syria but all staff members were safe, the organization said.

The statement came within minutes after Damascus said that armed men had abducted 11 people, including six members of a U.N. fact-finding mission and their Syrian drivers, in the countryside around Hama.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said its team was traveling to the site of an alleged chlorine gas attack site when the convoy was attacked.

The OPCW, which monitors the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and oversees the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, had sent a team to Damascus this month to investigate claims that chlorine has been used in the central Syrian region of Hama.

The OPCW statement was issued shortly after Syria's Foreign Ministry announced the abduction of the 11 U.N. staff and Syrian drivers.

The ministry blamed rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad, accusing them of committing "terrorist crimes" against the U.N. staff and OPCW.

Following the incident, the OPCW Director-General Ambassador Ahmet Uzumcu expressed concern, repeating his call to all parties for cooperation with the mission.

"Our inspectors are in Syria to establish the facts in relation to persistent allegations of chlorine gas attacks," Uzumcu said. "Their safety is our primary concern, and it is imperative that all parties to the conflict grant them safe and secure access."

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said the team was heading toward the town of Kfar Zeita where activists and Human Rights Watch reported gas attacks on April 11 and April 18 that killed two people.

It said the team left in four vehicles on Tuesday morning after the government agreed to a cease fire in Kfar Zeita between 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) "to facilitate the work of this mission."

After the OPCW team arrived in the village of Taibet al-Imam just before Kfar Zeita, it was informed of the government's inability to provide them protection beyond that point, it said. But the team then decided to continue without the Syrian security forces toward Kfar Zeita, the ministry said.

The ministry added that one of the team's four vehicles, which was only 2 kilometers (1.3 mile) away from Taibet al-Imam, was hit by a roadside bomb. The bomb forced the vehicle's passengers to move to another car and to return to the village.

The ministry said only one vehicle arrived in the village, which is under government control, a fact that might have caused Damascus to issue the statement saying the rest had been abducted.

It is not unusual to have different version of events in the chaos of Syria's civil war and the two statements could not be immediately reconciled.

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Sterling reported from Amsterdam.

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