Syria death toll reaches 93,000: UN The report came just as Bill Clinton appeared to split with President Barack Obama on the issue of US involvement in Syria, suggesting it was time to act more decisively to aid anti-Assad rebels. In a question-and-answer session with Republican Senator John McCain reported by Politico, the former US President said he thought it was an error to stand back from the conflict. "Some people say, "Okay, see what a big mess it is? Stay out! I think that's a big mistake," Mr Clinton said during an event for the McCain Institute for International Leadership in Manhattan. "Sometimes it's just best to get caught trying, as long as you don't overcommit - like, as long as you don't make an improvident commitment," he added. Mr Clinton had largely refrained from commenting on foreign policy while wife Hillary was serving as Mr Obama's Secretary of State, a position she stepped down from in January. The Tuesday session was closed to the press but Politico was supplied with audio recordings of the remarks made by an attendee. "Nobody is asking for American soldiers in Syria," Mr Clinton said. The only question is now that the Russians, the Iranians and the Hezbollah are in there head over heels, 90 miles to nothing, should we try to do something to try to slow their gains and rebalance the power so that these rebel groups have a decent chance, if they're supported by a majority of the people, to prevail? In discussion with Mr McCain, who is increasingly critical of Mr Obama's reluctance to intervene, Mr Clinton said Syria was not Iraq or Afganistan. "My view is that we shouldn't over-learn the lessons of the past," he said. Mr Clinton made his doubts on Mr Obama's cautious stance known amid talk of divisions within the administration over whether to arm Syrian rebels. US officials had hoped to reach a decision this week on supplying arms to opponents of President Bashar Assad. So far, however, there has been no announcement, and officials cited by Reuters said those closest to the president were split on the issue, as well as the possibility of more drastic steps such as using US airpower to ground Mr Assad's gunships and jets. Mr Obama's top national security advisers met at the White House yesterday to discuss ways to motivate the government and the opposition to hold peace talks. "Nobody wins in Syria the way things are going," Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters after meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague. The people lose, and Syria as a country loses. And what we have been pushing for, all of us involved in this effort, is a political solution that ends the violence, saves Syria, stops the killing and destruction of the entire nation. Mr Kerry, who postponed a trip this week to Israel and three other Mideast countries to participate in the White House talks, is believed to be among the most forward-leaning members of Mr Obama's national security leadership. Since becoming America's top diplomat in February, he has spoken regularly about the need to change Mr Assad's calculation that he can win the war militarily, if only to get him into serious discussions with the opposition about establishing a transitional government. Officials said some at the White House, the Pentagon and in the intelligence community remained hesitant about providing weapons, ammunition or other lethal support to a rebellion increasingly defined by extremists who, along with Mr Assad, have turned a political insurrection into a sectarian war. Instead, they've focused on nonlethal support, such as Wednesday's decision by the Treasury Department to ease restrictions on Syrian telecommunications, agricultural and petroleum transactions that benefit the opposition. "We have refocused our efforts on figuring out what to do to help the opposition on the ground," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, citing Mr Assad's military success last week at Qusair as well as the influx of Lebanese Hezbollah and other foreign fighters as reasons for why the US was rethinking its approach. Even if nothing is decided this week, officials said the US, Britain and France, who together spearheaded the international intervention in Libya in 2011, were trying to coordinate a common approach before next week's G-8 gathering of world leaders. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr Assad's most powerful military and political backer, also will be present at the Northern Ireland summit. The latest death toll is only likely to add to the sense of urgency. Meanwhile, in a separate report yesterday, the UN saidthat children were being used as sniper targets and human shields in the Syrian conflict. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in the report the 26-month-old war in Syria is taking an "unacceptable and unbearable" toll on children with thousands among the death toll. The office of UN special representative on children in conflict, Leila Zerrougui, said it had received "verified reports that Syrian children are killed or injured in indiscriminate bombings, shot by snipers, used as human shields or victims of terror tactics." The report said boys as young as 10 are used by armed groups to work as combatants and porters. Meanwhile Mr Assad's forces had used sexual violence against boys to obtain information or confessions, the special representative said. Child detainees as young as 14 were tortured like adults "including electric shock, beatings, stress positions and threats and acts of sexual torture," according to the report.