Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil this week dismissed as mere election politics President Obama's implicit threat to intervene should the Syrian regime deploy its chemical weapons stockpile. (Andrey Smirnov, AFP/Getty Images / ) 
 
 WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has made contingency plans to send small teams of special operations troops into Syria if the White House decides it needs to secure chemical weapons depots now controlled by security forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, senior U.S. officials said. 
 
 President Obama warned this week that any effort by Assad to move or use his arsenal of chemical munitions in the country's conflict would cross a "red line," implying it could prompt swift U.S. intervention. 
 
 But Pentagon planners are more focused on protecting or destroying any Syrian stockpiles that are left unguarded and at risk falling into the hands of rebel fighters or militias aligned with Al Qaeda, Hezbollah or other militant groups. 
 
 Securing the sites would probably involve stealthy raids by special operations teams trained to handle such weapons, and precision airstrikes to incinerate the chemicals without dispersing them in the air, the officials said. U.S. satellites and drone aircraft already maintain partial surveillance of the sites. 
 
 U.S. intelligence agencies believe Syria has over the years produced or acquired hundreds of tons of sarin nerve agent and mustard gas, a blister agent, and has sought to develop VX, another powerful nerve gas. The toxicity of some chemical agents degrades significantly over time, so it is unclear how lethal the stockpiles are. 
 
 Experts say the chemical agents are stored in bunkers and other sites around the country. Four production facilities are near the cities of Aleppo, Hama and Homs, all tinderboxes in the 17-month uprising, as well as the coastal city of Latakia, an area considered a stronghold for Assad's Alawite religious sect. 
 
 An unclassified report by the director of national intelligence this year said Syria's chemical agents "can be delivered by aerial bombs, ballistic missiles and artillery rockets." But Syrian rockets, including Scud missiles procured from North Korea, are notoriously inaccurate, making them ineffective for delivering a heavy concentration of toxic chemicals to a specific target. 
 
 They can be very effective, however, at creating chaos. 
 
 "The actual killing may be less important than the panic they would induce," said Leonard Spector, who heads the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. 
 
 Although he did not make an explicit threat, Obama's comments at the White House on Monday were widely seen as a direct warning to Assad that the U.S. would take military action if necessary to stop the use of chemical weapons. But officials said later that no large-scale U.S. intervention is likely unless it is part of an international coalition. 
 
 "You shouldn't interpret what Obama said to mean that there would be automatic military action, but rather that we would respond as part of an international effort," said one senior official. 
 
 Officials said Obama could make a unilateral decision, however, to order special forces teams to stop weapons of mass destruction from falling into the wrong hands. 
 
 Pentagon officials and senior military officers said the Syrian stockpiles seem well guarded for now, and they stressed that the White House has not ordered detailed planning of operations aimed at securing the facilities. 
 
 "We have done contingency planning but we're not doing detailed planning — identifying numbers [of troops], units and platforms — until the White House tells us we need a specific plan for this," a senior officer said. 
 
 Although U.S. officials said they are closely monitoring the unconventional weapons sites, they also acknowledge the stockpiles are large enough that some materials, such as small artillery shells filled with chemical agents, could be relocated without their knowledge. 
 
 U.S. officials told reporters last month that they had evidence Syrian forces were moving some chemical arms, apparently to keep them away from areas of fighting. 
 
 Assad's government has said it will not use chemical munitions against the Syrian people, though it has implied they could be used if foreign troops sought to intervene in the war. 
 
 "Any chemical or bacterial weapon will never be used — and I repeat will never be used — during the crisis in Syria, regardless of the developments," Jihad Makdissi, a Syrian government spokesman, told reporters last month. "These weapons are stored and secured by Syrian military forces and under its direct supervision and will never be used unless Syria faces external aggression." 
 
 Analysts say it's unclear how much of the chemical arsenal could be deployed, and they note that the agents, particularly VX and sarin, may have weakened if the regime isn't regularly refilling its stocks. U.S. intelligence officials have said that Syria, which is under international sanctions, relies heavily on foreign sources for chemicals and other key parts of its weapons program. 
 
 The VX stockpiles maintained by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's government had a shelf life of about six months, and the sarin less than two years, the EU Non-Proliferation Consortium, a network of European think tanks, said in a report last month. 
 
 "To keep those sorts of quantities replenished, you have to have a very robust program," said Charles P. Blair, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Federation of American Scientists, a Washington-based group. 
 
 In response to a reporter's question Monday, Obama mentioned Syria's biological weapons program. But that appears a minor concern at this point. 
 
 In 2008, Army Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, then director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, testified before Congress that Syria had "a program to develop select biological agents as weapons" and that the program was "in the research and development stage." 
 
 U.S. officials no longer appear to believe that Syria is actively pursuing a biological weapons program. The unclassified U.S. intelligence report this year said only that Syria had the infrastructure to support the development of biological weapons. 
 
 david.cloud@latimes.com 
 
 sbengali@latimes.com ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama spoke by phone on Saturday 
 
 The UK and the US have threatened a "serious response" if it emerges Syria used chemical weapons last week. 
 
 Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama spoke on the telephone for 40 minutes on Saturday. 
 
 Both were "gravely concerned" by the "increasing signs that this was a[n]... attack carried out by the Syrian regime", Mr Cameron's office said. 
 
 But intervention would have serious consequences and the US case was weak, the Syrian information minister warned. 
 
 In an interview with Lebanese TV, Omran Zoabi said: "If the US leads a military intervention, this will have dangerous consequences. It will bring chaos and the region will burn." 
 
 The Syrian government has denied any use of chemical weapons, blaming rebel fighters instead. 
 
 State television reported on Saturday that soldiers had found chemical agents in tunnels used by the rebels to the east of Damascus. 
 
 It broadcast images of gas masks and plastic containers, but nothing to support official statements that soldiers had "suffered from cases of suffocation" when rebels used poison gas "as a last resort" after government forces made "big gains" in the suburb of Jobar. 
 
 Image caption Syria's government said chemical materials used by rebels had been found 
 
 Opposition activists accuse forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad of killing between 500 and more than 1,000 civilians in several suburbs east and west of capital in the early hours of Wednesday morning. 
 
 They want the areas inspected by UN chemical weapons experts who are already in Damascus to investigate other suspected attacks. 
 
 Analysis Out of the chaos and confusion of the past few days, several things have emerged clearly. Even the regime itself and its closest allies, Russia and Iran, do not dispute that chemical weapons were used in the suburbs of Damascus on Wednesday. The evidence from a huge flow of distressing amateur video is too massive to dismiss. Both Moscow and Tehran have said they are urging the Syrian authorities to co-operate with the UN chemical weapons inspectors already in Damascus, and the Iranian foreign minister has quoted his Syrian counterpart as saying the government is preparing the conditions for a site visit. With combat continuing in the affected areas, there is clearly scope for prevarication and delay, although Western patience is short. But at least an appearance of regime willingness to co-operate may for the moment let the US and its allies off the hook. For one of the other elements that has become clearer than ever in the past few days is the great reluctance of US President Barack Obama and others to plunge into an embroilment that would be hard to get out of, and which would carry a very high risk of aggravating the situation even further. Attack may force search for peace 
 
 The UN's disarmament chief, Angela Kane, arrived in Damascus on Saturday to press the authorities for access. 
 
 Iran's Irna state news agency reported that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had told his Iranian counterpart that Damascus was "co-operating" with the UN experts and "preparing the opportunity for them to visit areas which have been attacked chemically by terrorist groups". 
 
 'Gathering facts and evidence' 
 
 "The UN Security Council has called for immediate access for UN investigators on the ground in Damascus," Downing Street said in a statement. 
 
 "The fact that President Assad has failed to co-operate with the UN suggests that the regime has something to hide." 
 
 It said Mr Cameron and Mr Obama had "reiterated that significant use of chemical weapons would merit a serious response from the international community and both have tasked officials to examine all the options". 
 
 The statement said the two men had agreed it was "vital that the world upholds the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons and deters further outrages". 
 
 They would keep in "close contact", it added. 
 
 The US president earlier convened his National Security Council to discuss options on Syria. 
 
 US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the American military, which is repositioning naval forces in the Mediterranean, was ready to act. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Chuck Hagel: "President Obama has asked the defence department to prepare options for all contingencies" 
 
 "President Obama has asked the defence department to prepare options for all contingencies. We have done that and we are prepared to exercise whatever option - if he decides to employ one of those options," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. 
 
 BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said he understood that the "serious response" mentioned in the UK statement would not include "boots on the ground". 
 
 But a range of other options was not ruled out, he said, potentially including air strikes. 
 
 On Sunday, Iran's deputy armed forces chief, Massoud Jazayeri, warned the US against crossing the "red line" on Syria, saying it would have "severe consequences", according to the Fars news agency. 
 
 'Neurotoxic symptoms' 
 
 The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said three hospitals it supports in the Damascus area had treated about 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms" early on Wednesday morning, of whom 355 have died. 
 
 While MSF said it could not "scientifically confirm" the use of chemical weapons, staff at the hospitals described a large number of patients arriving in the space of less than three hours with symptoms including convulsions, pinpoint pupils and breathing problems. 
 
 MSF director of operations Bart Janssens said the symptoms - as well as the "massive influx of patients in a short period of time" - strongly suggested mass exposure to a neurotoxic agent. 
 
 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, meanwhile said it had documented the deaths of 322 people, including 82 women and 54 children. 
 
 On Sunday morning, several suburbs of Damascus reportedly came under heavy shell and mortar fire, as government forces continued their offensive on rebel strongholds. 
 
 At least 114 people were killed across the country on Saturday, including 33 people in the capital, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition activist network. 
 
 The UN says more than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Assad began more than two years ago. 
 
 'Chemical attack': What we know
– If the Syrian regime falls, the US plans to deploy troops to stop its chemical weapons from becoming a first-come, first-served bonanza for insurgent groups, senior officials say. Plans are in place to secure the sites if necessary, a move that would probably involve teams of special forces operatives entering the country to guard sites as well as precision airstrikes to incinerate other locations without releasing poisons into the air, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Pentagon fears that stockpiles left unguarded could fall into the hands of rebels linked to al-Qaeda or other Islamic extremists. American satellites and drones are already watching the sites, which are believed to hold hundreds of tons of sarin gas and other nerve agents. Earlier this week, President Obama warned Bashar al-Assad's regime that the US considers the using or moving of chemical weapons a "red line" beyond which military force could be used. Activists say hundreds of people have been killed in continued fighting this week, including many civilians in army shelling of southern Damascus, Reuters reports.