The Pentagon warned for the first time it is considering "all options," including military, to support Syria's uprising against to the Assad regime, UPI reported. "Our approach must keep all options on the table, while recognizing the limitations of military force," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the House Armed Services Committee. Panetta called the persistent violence in Syria, which has shattered an April 12 U.N.-approved cease-fire, "brutal and devastating." The violence -- which killed a reported 30 civilians, including two women and a child, Thursday -- has put Syrians "in a desperate" situation, Panetta said. "It has outraged the conscience of all good people. And it has threatened stability in a very important part of the world," he said. Panetta said Iran is "Syria's only ally in the region" and is helping prop up the regime of President Bashar Assad "with material, financial and technical assistance." That is because "no other country stands to lose more than Iran from the eventual fall of the Assad regime," he said. The Pentagon is weighing options "to inform the approach of the United States to Syria," he said.
