Syria has begun destroying remnants of Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons program, with international inspectors verifying the elimination of 42 aerial bombs—a major step toward dismantling the infrastructure used against civilians during the country’s years-long civil war.

What happened: Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ibrahim Olabi, confirmed Thursday that his country began destroying remnants of the former regime’s chemical weapons program under the supervision of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Olabi told a UN Security Council briefing, “This is the very first destruction process since we have been liberated from the previous regime,” adding, “It's also the first of its kind to destroy chemical materials on Syrian territories for over a decade.”

During its deployment to Syria in August, an OPCW team confirmed the “irreversible destruction of 42 aerial bombs” in the first verified destruction of chemical munitions on Syrian territory since 2014, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi ⁠Nakamitsu said during the UN briefing on Thursday.