France identifies 2 more reporters held in Syria

Inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) returned to the Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus on Wednesday having left earlier in the day.

Two separate convoys of UN vehicles had driven away from the hotel on Wednesday morning in their continuing mission to deal with Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.

It was not clear precisely where they were headed and what their task for the day was. The international disarmament inspectors began work on Sunday to destroy Syria's estimated 1,000-tonne stockpile of chemical weapons.

They're working to a November 1 deadline set by the United Nations last month to destroy the Assad government's capability to produce such weapons.

The chief of the global chemical weapons watchdog announced that the organization is sending a second team of inspectors to Syria to expand its high-stakes, high-risk mission to rid Syria of its poison gas stockpile.

Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the OPCW spoke to the group's 41-nation Executive Council on Tuesday at the start of a four-day meeting in The Hague.

Uzumcu did not specify how many people would be in the second team, but in a letter to the UN Security Council obtained by The Associated Press, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recommended Monday that approximately 100 UN and OPCW staff eventually make up the mission.

International positions:

On another note, Iranian media reported that Iran rejects any conditions for taking part in a long-delayed peace conference on Syria, in effect dismissing a US suggestion that Tehran backs a call for a transitional government in Damascus.

The U.S. State Department said on Monday Washington would be more open to Iran taking part in a "Geneva 2" conference seeking an end to the war if Iran publicly supported a 2012 statement calling for a transitional authority to rule Syria.

But Iran rejected any conditions being placed on it to participate in diplomatic efforts on Syria, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said on Tuesday evening.

"If our participation is in the interest of achieving a solution, it will be unacceptable to set conditions for inviting the Islamic Republic of Iran, and we accept no conditions," Afkham said, according to the state-run Press TV.

A June 2012 "Geneva Communique" sought to chart a path to a diplomatic resolution of the conflict, and was agreed to by major powers such as the United States and Russia, Gulf states, and Syria's neighbors Iraq and Turkey - but not Iran, which was not invited to those talks.

The agreement called for a transitional governing authority but left open the question of whether Assad must leave power. The Syrian civil war has laid waste to the country's cities, shattered its economy, killed around 100,000 people and driven more than 2 million people to seek shelter abroad.

Another nearly 5 million people have been displaced within the country, which has become a patchwork of rebel-held and regime-held territory.

2 French reporters held hostages in Syria

 France has identified two more journalists held hostage in Syria, bringing the number of known French hostages in the country to four.

The Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that reporters Nicolas Henin and Pierre Torres were kidnapped June 22. Their capture was not disclosed until now out of respect of their families' wishes, the ministry said in a statement.

Henin was working for Le Point magazine and Arte television. Torres was there to photograph municipal elections in the northeast city of Raqqa, the ministry said.

Two other French reporters, Didier Francois and Edouard Elias, have been missing since they were kidnapped while working in Syria on June 6.

On the field:

The Israeli military said it has struck a target in Syria in retaliation after a soldier in the Golan Heights was lightly wounded by fire from across the frontier.
 
Gunfire and mortar shells from Syria periodically land inside the Israeli-controlled Golan. Israel believes most of the fire, including Wednesday's, is errant spillover from the Syrian civil war. But it some cases, it has accused Syrian forces of intentionally firing into the Golan.

In Wednesday's incident, the military says two mortar shells struck an Israeli military post. It says one soldier was lightly wounded by shrapnel, while a second suffered from shock.

On another note, France Presse quoted witnesses as saying that two mortar shells landed on the Central Bank of Syria located in Damascus.


LBCI/REUTERS/AP