Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has accused the Syrian government of killing more than 2,000 of its own citizens during its ongoing brutal crackdown against opposition protesters as the Obama administration moved to further isolate President Bashar Assad and his inner circle. The administration is unhappy with Assad's actions in trying to quell the five-month-old uprising. "We think, to date, the government is responsible for the deaths of more than 2,000 people of all ages," Clinton said,repeating the administration's position that "Assad has lost his legitimacy to govern the Syrian people."

She said the US would "continue to support the Syrians themselves in their efforts to begin a peaceful and orderly transition to democracy" and renewed calls for the international community to isolate Assad and his regime. Clinton's comments, made at a news conference yesterday with visiting Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, came just hours after White House press secretary Jay Carney said Assad is "on his way out" and the administration hit a prominent pro-regime businessman and his firm with sanctions.

On Tuesday, Clinton along with a group of US-based Syrian activists and members of the Syrian-American community expressed her solidarity and sympathy for all Syrian victims of Assad regime's abuses.

"We are seized of the concerns posed by what is happening in Syria, and we know that it?s taken time to pull together a broader international coalition to speak out against what is happening in Syria," she said. "We are committed to doing all we can to increase the pressure, including additional sanctions, but not just US sanctions, because frankly, we don?t have a lot of business with Syria," Clinton added.