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The US is to supply direct military aid to the Syrian opposition for the first time, the White House has announced. President Obama made the decision after his administration concluded Syrian forces under Bashar al-Assad were using chemical weapons, a spokesman said. Ben Rhodes did not give details about the military aid other than to say it would be "different in scope and scale to what we have provided before". The US had warned any use of chemical weapons would cross a "red line". The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says the US announcement is one that the Syrian opposition has been pushing and praying for for months. It seems clear that President Obama has finally been persuaded, as Britain and France have argued, that the battlefield cannot be allowed to tilt strongly in the regime's favour, as is currently happening, he adds. The White House announcement came on the same day the United Nations said the number of those killed in the Syrian conflict had risen to more than 93,000 people. 'High confidence' Mr Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to Mr Obama, said the US intelligence community believed the "Assad regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times over the last year." He said intelligence officials had a "high confidence" in their assessment and also estimated that 100 to 150 people had died from chemical weapons attacks. "We have consistently said the use of chemical weapons violates international norms and crosses red lines that have existed in the international community for decades." Mr Rhodes said. Mr Rhodes said the president had made the decision to increase assistance, including "military support", to the Supreme Military Council (SMC) and Syrian Opposition Coalition. He did not give details of the aid, but the New York Times quoted US officials as saying that Washington could provide small arms and ammunition as well as anti-tank weapons. The Wall Street Journal was told by officials that the US proposal called for a limited no-fly zone inside Syria, enforced by US and allied planes on Jordanian territory. Asked whether Mr Obama would back a no-fly zone over Syria, Mr Rhodes said one would not make a "huge difference" on the ground - but would be costly. He said further actions would be taken "on our own timeline." Mr Rhodes said the White House hoped the increased support would bolster the effectiveness and legitimacy of both the political and military arms of Syria's rebels, and said the US was "comfortable" working with SMC chief Gen Salim Idris. "It's been important to work through them while aiming to isolate some of the more extremist elements of the opposition, such as al-Nusra," he said. A senior pro-Kremlin politician in Russia - an ally of Syria - said US claims of the Assad government's use of chemical weapons were "fabricated". Likening it to when the US wrongly claimed Saddam Hussein held chemical weapons in Iraq, Alexei Pushkov, head of lower house of parliament foreign affairs committee, tweeted: "Obama is taking the same path as George Bush." 'Long overdue' The US decision marks a significant escalation of the proxy war that has been gathering pace in Syria, our Beirut correspondent says. The support of the West's regional allies, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, had helped the rebels in the days after the uprising became militarised. But the tide turned after the Assad government turned to Moscow and Tehran for help. Hezbollah fighters have also been involved in the government's counter-offensive. Now the West is lining up to try and help the rebels, but that is likely to take many months with more bloodshed and destruction, our correspondent adds. UK and French leaders have long argued that President Bashar al-Assad must be made to realise that he cannot secure a military victory against his opponents and must be forced to the negotiating table, according to BBC political editor Nick Robinson. The White House announcement immediately shook up the ongoing debate in Washington DC over how the US might provide assistance to the rebels. Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who have been particularly strident in their calls for military aid, said the finding must change US policy in Syria. They called for further action, saying US credibility was on the line. "A decision to provide lethal assistance, especially ammunition and heavy weapons, to opposition forces in Syria is long overdue, and we hope the president will take this urgently needed step," they said in a joint statement. "But providing arms alone is not sufficient. The president must rally an international coalition to take military actions to degrade Assad's ability to use airpower and ballistic missiles and to move and resupply his forces around the battlefield by air." A UN report released on Thursday found at least 5,000 people have been dying in Syria every month since last July, with 30,000 killed since November. More than 80% of those killed were men, but the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says it has also documented the deaths of more than 1,700 children under the age of 10.