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U.S., Turkey ramping up crisis response to Syria

ReutersA Free Syrian Army fighter tries to fix his jammed rifle during heavy fighting Saturday in the Salaheddine neighborhood of central Aleppo.

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- As government and rebel forces continued fighting Saturday in Aleppo, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. and Turkey are expanding preparations to counter deteriorating conditions in Syria.

Clinton and Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said they're creating a working group whose job it will be to organize intelligence, military, and political responses to potential acts such as a chemical attack by the government led by President Bashar al-Assad.

The U.S. will also provide another $5.5 million in aid for the Syrian people, which Clinton said will result in a total of $82 million since the March 2011 start of "Arab spring" protests that have expanded into an armed rebellion against Assad.

"As we work to help the opposition inside Syria, we are continuing to increase pressure from outside," Clinton said at a news conference in Istanbul.

Clinton and Davutoglu indicated that the creation of a no-fly zone over Syrian-rebel claimed territory is a possible option, according to Reuters.

At least 39 people, the majority of them civilians, were reportedly killed throughout Syria on Saturday.

There were reports that Salaheddine district of Aleppo, Syria's largest city, was shelled in an effort to push out rebel forces, and that there's been gunfire and bomb explosions in the Syrian capital of Damascus.