Syria releases video of purported chemical weapons inspectors at work

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A wounded Syrian woman walks with her children after airstrikes on a rebel area of the war-torn northern city of Aleppo. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Mourners attend a funeral for men killed during battles with members of the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (Mahmud Al-Halabi / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters carry a man’s body at the Aleppo headquarters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria after he was allegedly killed by the AlQaeda-linked group in January. (Medo Halab / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A Syrian man helps an injured resident following an airstrike in Aleppo’s Maadi neighborhood. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A Syrian man reacts after an airstrike by government forces on the city of Aleppo. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters inside a building during clashes with pro-government forces in the Sheikh al-Said neighborhood of Syria’s northern city of Aleppo. (Medo Halab / AFP/ Getty Images)

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An opposition fighter runs through a hole in a wall to avoid sniper fire by regime forces during clashes in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo. (KARAM AL-MASRI / AFP/Getty Images)

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Opposition fighters open fire from behind a car during fighting in the Salaheddin district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fierce fighting in Damascus province between rebels and troops backed by pro-regime militias and fighters from Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah. (KARAM AL-MASRI / AFP/Getty Images)

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A Syrian rebel aims his weapon during clashes with government forces in the streets near Aleppo international airport in northern Syria. (Stephen J. Boitano / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters duck as they run behind a barricade to avoid being fired at by Syrian government forces in the Old City of Aleppo. (JM Lopez / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A fighter allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad runs across the street after fighting with rebels in the Yarmouk refugee camp in the capital, Damascus. (Anwar Amro / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A fighter of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad, jumps through the window of a destroyed building in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus. (Anwar Amro / AFP/ Getty Images)

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An opposition fighter runs in front of a sniper curtain in the industrial area of Syria’s eastern town of Deir Ezzor during clashes with government forces. (Abo Shuja / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Free Syrian Army fighters clean their weapons and check ammunition at their base on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria. (Khalil Hamra / Associated Press)

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Syrian government forces patrol the Khaldiyeh district of Syria’s central city of Homs. The Syrian government announced on July 29 the capture of Khaldiyeh, a key rebel district in Homs. (Joseph Eid / AFP/Getty Images)

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A Syrian national flag is waved in Damascus to show support for President Bashar Assad. (Louai Beshara / AFP/Getty Images)

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A rebel fighter takes aim at regime forces in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (Louai Abo Al-Jod / AFP/Getty Images)

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A man stands near destroyed buildings after reported airstrikes by Syrian government forces in the rebel-held northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. (Abu Amar Al-Taftanaz / AFP/Getty Images)

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Mustafa Abu Bekir, 23, second from left, meets relatives after crossing the Turkish Cilvegozu gate border. Abu Bekir said he was severely wounded by a bomb dropped from a Syrian army warplane while fighting with the Free Syrian Army in Idlib. (Gregorio Borgia / Associated Press)

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A man carries a boy who was severely wounded during heavy fighting between Syrian rebels and troops last year in Idlib. (Rodrigo Abd / Associated Press)

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Syrian President Bashar Assad arrives at a dinner event in Damascus on the last week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (Virginie Nguyen Hoang / AFP/Getty Images)

By Patrick J. McDonnell

Oct. 8, 2013 3:52 PM PT

BEIRUT — Syrian state television on Tuesday broadcast footage of what it said were disarmament inspectors at work in Syria as a second team of chemical weapons experts was preparing to leave for the war-battered nation.

The video showed a pair of men in protective gear examining what appeared to be a chemical plant at an unidentified site. The two, identified as international inspectors, scrutinized and tagged switches at the facility and peered beneath a row of metal drums like those used to store chemicals.

The images are the first to emerge depicting the work of disarmament technicians who arrived in Syria last week and are charged with beginning the challenging task of eliminating the nation’s chemical weapons stockpiles under a United Nations mandate.

On Tuesday, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, The Hague-based agency supervising the mission, said it was sending a second group of inspectors to Syria.

The initial inspection team has been verifying the extent of the nation’s chemical arsenal and has begun to destroy arms and related equipment, using cutting torches and grinders, among other tools. On Sunday, the group said that some missile warheads, aerial bombs and other equipment had already been disabled or destroyed.

“These developments present a constructive beginning for what will nonetheless be a long and difficult process,” Ahmet Uzumcu, director general of the disarmament agency, said Tuesday in a statement.

One early goal is to disable all of Syria’s chemical weapons production facilities and mixing and filling equipment by Nov. 1.

On a broader scale, the experts are working under a United Nations deadline to rid Syria of its chemical stockpiles by mid-2014. The Syrian government agreed to the plan and has been cooperative with international inspectors, according to U.S. and other foreign officials monitoring the process.

The U.N. said this week that about 100 international experts will have to spend about a year to ensure the destruction of the nation’s chemical stockpiles, estimated at about 1,000 tons. The U.N. is providing logistical and security aid. The mission is considered unprecedented, both because of its tight deadline and the fact that it is being undertaken as Syria is engulfed in a civil war that has left broad swaths of the country in ruins and resulted in more than 100,000 dead, according to U.N. estimates.

The wide-ranging disarmament blueprint stems from a U.S.-Russian pact hammered out after Washington threatened to launch missile strikes against the Syrian government for what the U.S. says was its use of chemical weapons in a series of attacks outside Damascus on Aug. 21. Syria denied carrying out the strikes but agreed to the elimination of its chemical stockpiles under international supervision. A U.N. resolution last month called for the destruction to be completed by the middle of next year.

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Twitter: @mcdneville

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Special correspondent Nabih Bulos contributed to this report.