Pentagon officials have confirmed that the US cargo ship outfitted with a system to neutralise Syria's chemical weapons has set to sea after completing transfer of chemical precursors and other materiel in an Italian port. Military Sealift Command ship MV Cape Ray (T-AKR 9679) departed Gioia Tauro on 2 July after receiving a final batch of chemicals that had recently been handed over by Syria and transported to Italy by the Danish container ship Ark Futura. Equipped with two Field Deployable Hydrolysis Systems, Cape Ray, a 197 m-long roll-on/ roll-off vessel, is expected to sail into international waters in the Mediterranean Sea to begin neutralising the chemicals. "The neutralisation process should take several weeks to complete," Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement.
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