News that Turkish officials told the British newspaper, the Guardian that Turkey had credible evidence that Syria would use chemical weapons if the Syrian government aerial bombardment of the rebels failed to subdue them prompted the United States to issue a statement to the middle eastern government.

Secrtetary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to reporters in Prague, where she is on a week-long tour, saying that the United States would take action if credible evidence surfaced that Syria had used chemical weapons on its population. Although saying that the use of the weapons would be a “red line,” Clinton would not go into details as to what action the U.S. would take. “I’m not going to telegraph in any specifics what we would do in the event of credible evidence that the Assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people,” said the secretary.

“We once again issue a very strong warning to the Assad regime that their behavior is reprehensible, their actions against their own people have been tragic,” Clinton added. “But there is no doubt that there’s a line between even the horrors that they’ve already inflicted on the Syrian people and moving to what would be an internationally condemned step of utilizing their chemical weapons.”

Clinton’s remarks came after the New York Times reported that increased activity had been detected around chemical weapons sites in Syria. That news source quoted U.S. and Israeli officials.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry responded to the U.S. Secretary of State’s remarks to reporters, saying that they “would not use chemical weapons, if it had them, against its own people under any circumstances.” That statement was reported on Syrian state television.

The Secretary will be talking to NATO members in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday about positioning Patriot missiles inside Turkey near its border with Syria.The positioning of missiles in that country were requested by the Turkish government to bolster their air defenses. If approved, the deployment would still take weeks.

Russia argued that the deployment would not promote stability in the region. Russia and Turkey have strained relations since the forced landing of a passenger airlines from Russia on suspicions that the aircraft carried weapons bound for the Syrian government.

The United Nations announced today that because of the deteriorating conditions in Syria, that the organization was pulling out all non-essential personnel from the country.

The Syrian government continues to attempt to set up a secure perimeter around Damascus as the rebels attempt to push the fighting into the capitol. Government forces continue to pound the suburbs around Damascus with aerial attacks by fighter jets and heavy rocket attacks. The fighting taking place in that region is fierce as it turns into a main battleground in the 20-month-old conflict.