Six members of UN chemical-weapons mission kidnapped by armed groups : Syria

Foreign Ministry says 11 people in total were abducted in the countryside around Hama, central Syria.

Rebel fighters preparing to head out to the front line in Syria's northern Hama countryside March 30, 2014. Photo by Reuters

Syria's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that 11 people, including six members of a #UN chemical-weapons fact-finding mission, have been abducted by armed groups in central #Syria.

The ministry said the abductions occurred in the countryside around Hama in central Syria.

"Two cars were seized by terrorist groups carrying 11 people - five of them Syrian drivers and six from the fact-finding mission," the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SANA news agency.

A ministry statement blamed rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad, accusing them of committing "terrorist crimes" against the UN staff and the UN Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

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