Remnants of Assad's chemical weapons program recovered, Syrian official says

AMSTERDAM, May 26 (Reuters) - Syria's transitional leadership has located remnants of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's clandestine chemical weapons program, including raw materials and munitions similar to those used to carry out deadly gas attacks during the country's long-running civil war, a Syrian official told Reuters on Tuesday.

Syrian authorities have also taken into custody 18 suspects for alleged involvement in Assad's chemical weapons program, including high-level military, political and technical officials, said Mohamad Katoub, Syria's permanent representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, in an interview.

(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch, editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout)