Syria vows to abide by UN resolution

Syria's prime minister says Damascus will fully cooperate with UN inspectors charged with destroying the country's chemical weapons stockpile.
Wael al-Halqi's comments Saturday come a day after the UN Security Council voted unanimously to purge Syria of its chemical weapons programme.
Al-Halqi said in an interview with Lebanon's Al Manar TV that Syria "welcomed the resolution" and "will fulfill its international duties." He also said the government "will facilitate the work of the inspectors."
The UN resolution passed yesterday allows the start of a mission to rid Syria's regime of its estimated 1,000-ton chemical arsenal by mid-2014. It also calls for consequences if Syria fails to comply, but those will depend on the council passing another resolution in the event of non-compliance.

Syrian rebels including members of an al-Qaeda-linked group captured today a military post on the border with Jordan after four days of fighting, an activist group said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 26 soldiers were killed in the battle as well as a number of rebels, including seven foreign fighters. The post served in the past as the customs office on the border with Jordan. It was turned into an army post years ago.

The post is on the outskirts of the southern city of Daraa where the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March 2011. The uprising later turned into a civil war that killed more than 100,000 people, according to the UN.

Rebels control multiple areas along the borders with Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and Lebanon as well as th eIsraeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Also today some UN inspectors left their hotel in Damascus in one vehicle to an unknown location, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene.
The UN said yesterday its team of weapons experts currently in Syria will investigate seven sites of alleged chemical attacks in the country, four more than previously known. The announcement came hours before the UN Security Council voted unanimously to secure and destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.
The team initially visited Syria last month to investigate three alleged chemical attacks this year. But just days into the visit, the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Ghouta was hit by a chemical strike, and the inspectors turned their attention to that case. The inquiry determined that the nerve agent sarin was used in the August 21 attack, but it did not assess who was behind it.