White House: We'll Give Syrian Rebels Arms, Support

The United States is boosting military support to the main Syrian rebel group after determining that the government has used chemical weapons against the opposition, a top White House official said on Thursday.

"The president has made a decision about providing more support to the opposition, that will involve providing direct support to the (Supreme Military Council), that includes military support," Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters on a conference call. "This is going to be different in both scope and scale in terms of what we are providing to the SMC than what we have provided before."

The Supreme Military Council is the military wing of the main civilian opposition group.