US May Act Without Allied Support Syria: Russia 'To Send Ships To Mediterranean' Updated: 9:08pm UK, Thursday 29 August 2013 Russia and the US have sent further warships to boost their military capacity in the Mediterannean as expectations grow of an imminent strike on Syria. Syria's ally Russia is sending an anti-submarine ship and a missile cruiser to the Mediterranean, according to Russian news agency Interfax. In the US, a defence official has said a fifth destroyer, the USS Stout, has been deployed to the Mediterranean and is "heading and moving east." The guided missile destroyer is due to relieve the Mahan, but both ships might remain in place for the time being, the official said. Other destroyers in the region - the Ramage, the Barry and the Gravely - criss-cross the Mediterranean and could launch their Tomahawk missiles toward Syria if so directed by US President Barack Obama. As military action inched closer, Syrian President Bashar al Assad's forces removed several Scud missiles and dozens of launchers from a base north of Damascus, possibly to protect them from bombardment, opposition sources claimed. The White House said it is on track to release an unclassified intelligence report on Syria this week, although the information is not a "slam-dunk" that will make an open and shut case for military action. A spokesman added that what the US is contemplating in terms of its response is "very discrete and limited." Russia and the US have taken part in an "urgent" meeting of the five permanent UN Security Council members in New York - the second such meeting in two days. Russia's President Vladimir Putin has spoken to German leader Angela Merkel by phone, with the pair agreeing the Syrian conflict can be solved politically, the chancellor's spokesman said. "The chancellor called on the Russian president to use negotiations in the UN Security Council for a quick, unanimous international reaction," he added. Public opinion in Germany is overwhelmingly against military action in Syria, less than four weeks before an election in which Mrs Merkel hopes to win a third term. The warship reports come after US President Barack Obama said the US had studied evidence and concluded that the Syrian government was behind the alleged attack. Mr Obama said any strike would be to "send a shot across the bow" and give a "pretty strong signal that [Syria] better not do it again." He added the US had not yet made a firm decision about how to respond, but that it could take action even without the backing of allies or the United Nations. The president's national security adviser Susan Rice, intelligence director James Clapper, defence secretary Chuck Hagel and secretary of state John Kerry are to brief Congress on Syria later, according to Reuters. Questions are said to remain about who actually controls some of Syria's chemical weapons and whether President Assad himself explicitly ordered the alleged attack. Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta told state radio that his country condemned the Assad regime but would not join any military operation without UN Security Council authorisation. The Syrian leader was shown meeting Yemeni politicians on state television on Thursday. It quoted President Assad as saying the country would defend itself in the face of any aggression. He said his inspection team would soon finish its investigation, leaving Syria on Friday and reporting their findings to him the following day. Samples they have collected will go to labs around Europe for testing, AP reported. Last week's alleged chemical attack is claimed to have killed 1,300 people.