US beats drum for Syria action Aftermath: Residents of Iskat inspect buildings damaged by aircraft belonging to forces said to be loyal to Bashar al-Assad. President Barack Obama has reiterated he has not yet made a decision to launch an attack, but said intelligence showed the Syrian government had used chemical weapons and that this represented "a challenge to the world." "I meant what I said: that the world has an obligation to make sure that we maintain the norm against the use of chemical weapons," he said, hours after his administration released intelligence it said shows a chemical attack on a Damascus neighbourhood this month had killed 1429 people, including 426 children. He said he was not considering putting American troops on the ground but a narrow, focused strike. On Saturday, a team of UN inspectors left their Damascus hotel in a convoy of cars following the conclusion of their inquiry into the alleged use of chemical weapons. Their departure heightened expectations of a possible international military strike against the Assad regime. On Friday US Secretary of State John Kerry laid out the administration's case for war. In that statement Mr Kerry quoted Kevin Rudd, saying: "The Australian Prime Minister said he didn't want history to record that we were, quote, 'a party to turning such a blind eye."' And he referred to the French as the United States' oldest ally, a statement that seemed only to emphasis the vote by the British Parliament against supporting any attack on Syria. Mr Kerry outlined new intelligence contained in the declassified reports into the alleged attack. He said the administration now knew where missiles containing chemicals were fired from, by whom, at what time and where they landed - rebel-controlled neighbourhoods "We know that a senior regime official confirmed that chemical weapons were used by the regime," he said. The intelligence community has high confidence. The question is no longer what we know, it's what we collectively, we in the world, do about it. And he said responding to the alleged attack with force had a broader significance. "It is about whether Iran, which itself has been a victim of chemical weapons attacks, will now feel emboldened, in the absence of action, to obtain nuclear weapons," he said. It is about Hezbollah and North Korea, and every other terrorist group or dictator that might ever again contemplate the use of weapons of mass destruction. Will they remember that the Assad regime was stopped from those weapons' current or future use, or will they remember that the world stood aside and created impunity? Mr Kerry also laid out a justification for acting without the support of the United Nations. Because of the guaranteed Russian obstructionism of any action through the UN Security Council, the UN cannot galvanise the world to act as it should. So let me be clear: we will continue talking to the Congress, talking to our allies and, most importantly, talking to the American people. Both President Obama and Mr Kerry acknowledged that Americans were war-weary, a point that has been reinforced by new polling. A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 53 per cent of those surveyed this week said the US should stay out of the Syrian civil war, down from 60 per cent last week. Just 20 per cent said the US should take action, up from 9 per cent last week.