LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. ship MV Cape Ray left Rota, Spain, Tuesday and is heading to Italy where it will pick up about 1,300 tons of Syrian chemical weapons and then destroy them.

The Pentagon says the Cape Ray will arrive at the port of Gioia Tauro in several days. The most dangerous chemical weapons will be transferred from the Danish vessel Ark Futura to the Cape Ray, which will move into international waters for the destruction of those materials. The materials include mustard gas and precursors to the nerve gas sarin

Other material will be disposed of at toxic wastes sites in various countries.

The Cape Ray is equipped with a field deployable hydrolysis system that will be used over the next two months to make the material inert.

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