Obama says Syrian government use of chemical weapons a 'game...

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Activists are reporting heavy fighting in northern Damascus neighborhoods as troops try to advance against rebel forces.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the fighting between rebels and troops backed by pro-government militiamen are concentrating in Jobar and Barzeh.

The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said troops bombarded the nearby neighborhood of Qaboun on Friday with mortars and multiple rocket launchers. No one gave casualty figures.

Government forces have been on the offensive for days in and around Damascus in an apparent attempt to secure President Bashar Assad's main stronghold against rebel challenges.

Syria's conflict started with largely peaceful protests against Assad's regime in March 2011 but then turned into a civil war.

More than 70,000 people have been killed, according to the United Nations.

Positions:

Days after US secretary of State John Kerry called on NATO forces to face the threat of using chemical weapons in Syria, British Prime Minister David Cameron also warned on Friday against the dire repercussions of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian crisis.

In this context, Cameron said that the growing evidence on the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime is “highly dangerous”, calling on the international community to exert more efforts in this regard.

In addition, Cameron said “it is limited evidence but there is increasing evidence nonetheless of the use of chemical weapons probably by the Syrian regime”, noting that he agreed with US President Barack Obama that the aforementioned issue is a “red line”.

For his part, the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Ze'ev Elkin called on the United States to take military actions in a bid to come to grips with the weapons issue in Syria.

In turn, the White House said on Friday it continues to study evidence that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons and would not set a timetable for corroborating reports.

"I'm not going to set a timeline, because the facts need to be what drives this investigation, not a deadline," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at a briefing.

"We are continuing to work to build on the assessments made by the intelligence community, that the degrees of confidence here are varying, that this is not an airtight case," he

said.

Later on Friday, President Barack Obama said that the deployment of chemical weapons by the Syrian government was a "game changer" while noting that intelligence assessments proving that such weapons had been used were still preliminary.

"Horrific as it is when mortars are being fired on civilians and people are being indiscriminately killed, to use potential weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations crosses another line with respect to international norms and international law," Obama told reporters at the White House.

"That is going to be a game changer. We have to act prudently. We have to make these assessments deliberately. But I think all of us ... recognize how we cannot stand by and permit the systematic use of weapons like chemical weapons on civilian populations," he said.

Obama was speaking during a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah in the Oval Office.

REUTERS/AP/LBCI

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Obama says Syrian government use of chemical weapons a 'game changer'