The UK is to provide armoured vehicles and body armour to opposition forces in Syria "to help save lives", Foreign Secretary William Hague has said.| So that's where the tanks for the 7th Armored Brigade are going! |
Mr Hague said it was a "necessary, proportionate and lawful" response to "extreme human suffering".
But some MPs said they feared being drawn into a military intervention.
Up to 70,000 people have been killed and a million refugees have fled since the crisis began two years ago.
The latest UN figures show that two million have been internally displaced, while 400,000 have fled abroad since the start of the year, with the largest number seeking shelter in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.