- NEW: The opposition says 73 people are killed in fighting across the country
- Prime Minister David Cameron warns Syria against threatening the use of chemical weapons
- President Barack Obama says more countries need to contribute aid to Syria
- Amnesty International accuses the Syrian regime and rebels of atrocities in Aleppo
(CNN) -- Britain's prime minister is the latest leader to warn Syria against threatening to use chemical weapons in its ongoing civil war, saying it could trigger a military response.
The warning is one of the key developments in Syria.
Weapons warning: The threat is unacceptable, Cameron says
British Prime Minister David Cameron agrees with American President Barack Obama on the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
In a telephone call between the two leaders late Wednesday, "both leaders agreed that the use -- or threat -- of chemical weapons was completely unacceptable and would force them to revisit their approach so far," according to a statement released by the prime minister's office.
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The warning follows last month's revelation by Syria that it has chemical and biological weapons, confirming long-held suspicions that President Bashar al-Assad's government was in possession of such weapons.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry said the country has the weapons, but would use them only against foreign attackers.
The admission followed a warning by Obama that al-Assad's government risks crossing "a red line" that will provoke a military response if it uses or moves the weapons.
Humanitarian aid: U.S., Britain and France call on nations to step up aid
Obama, Cameron and French President Francois Hollande are urging more nations to heed a United Nations warning of a growing, dire humanitarian situation in Syria.
In a telephone conversation with Cameron, Obama "conveyed his concerns about the increasing dire humanitarian situation in Syria, and the need for more countries to contribute to the United Nations Syria humanitarian appeals," the White House said.
A similar conversation occurred between Cameron and Hollande, with both saying they were deeply troubled by the growing number of refugees, according to the statement from Cameron's office.
Hollande said the humanitarian crisis will be the focus of a U.N. Security Council meeting of foreign ministers next week.
The conversations late Wednesday followed word earlier in the day from U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos that an estimated 2.5 million people have been displaced by the 18-month conflict.
The Syrian government estimates that 1.2 million people are sheltering in public buildings, and "many more are staying with relatives and friends," Amos said. "Both those who have fled and their hosts have urgent humanitarian needs due to the widening impact of the crisis on the economy and on people's livelihoods."
Al-Assad's regime has said it will let aid groups already in the country expand their operations but won't allow new aid workers to enter.
The flow of aid has hardly kept up with the pace of violence as scores of people are killed each day and medics resort to makeshift clinics and crude supplies to treat the wounded.
On the ground: Rights group condemns both sides as fighting rages
At least 73 people were killed in fighting early Thursday across the country, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria.
Of those, 42 were killed in the capital city of Damascus and its suburbs where heavy fighting has been reported by the opposition, the LCC said.
The Syrian regime, meanwhile, was conducting operations in the northern Aleppo province that resulted in a number of deaths and injuries to "a number of terrorists," Syrian state-run TV reported.
The reports of casualties come as Amnesty International accused both sides of committing war crimes during the battle for Aleppo, Syria's largest city. It blamed the regime for indiscriminately targeting civilians.
During a 10-day fact-finding visit to Aleppo, the rights group said it investigated some 30 attacks that killed 80 people not involved in fighting.
"In the overwhelming majority of cases, the victims were killed or injured in attacks by government forces that violated international human law," the group said in its report.
"Some attacks were indiscriminate; some appear to have been direct attacks on civilians or civilian objects. In some cases, the source of the attack could not be established."
The report also found that the opposition, namely members of the rebel Free Syria Army, bound and executed members of a state-armed militia group.
It said the killings were recorded and video clips were widely distributed on social media.
Al-Assad's government has repeatedly denied killing civilians, while the rebel army has vowed it will investigate the killings.
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