US aware of Assad asylum offers

WASHINGTON - A US government spokesman said Wednesday that Washington is aware of the informal offers by some countries to give asylum to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"We do understand that some countries both in the region and elsewhere have offered to host Assad and his family should they choose to leave Syria," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner at a regular news briefing.

"We, at this point, don't have any formal understanding or knowledge of concrete offers, we are aware that some offers have been made informally," he told reporters.

Toner's remarks were in response to reports that some Arab countries and a number of Latin American countries are privately offering asylum to Assad.

But Toner stressed that Assad will be held accountable no matter where he goes.

"There's clearly significant questions of accountability for the horrible abuses he's committed against his own people," he said. "And these are issues that ultimately are going to be deliberated by the Syrian people, working with regional and international partners."

The West has been stepping up its pressure on the Syrian government. NATO agreed on Tuesday to deploy Patriot missile batteries in Turkey to deter what it called possible Syrian missile attacks. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday reiterated a stern warning to the Syrian government not to use chemical weapons against rebel forces.