Four senior army officers defect from Assad regime
Two brigadier generals and two colonels join opposition, appear in video posted by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
June 22, 2012, 1:54 pm
BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian activist group says four senior army officers have defected and joined the opposition.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights provided a video Friday purporting to show two brigadier generals and two colonels. They declared they were defecting.
The group said the defections came Thursday — the same day a Syria fighter pilot flew his MiG-21 warplane to neighboring Jordan, where he was given asylum.
Thousands of soldiers have abandoned the regime, but most are low-level conscripts. The Free Syria Army, the loosely linked group of rebel forces, is made up partly of Syrian army defectors.
Also Friday, Syria’s state-run news agency said “terrorist groups” killed and mutilated several people in the northern Aleppo province.
The Syrian government refers to rebels as terrorists.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
Two brigadier generals and two colonels join opposition, appear in video posted by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
June 22, 2012, 1:54 pm
BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian activist group says four senior army officers have defected and joined the opposition.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights provided a video Friday purporting to show two brigadier generals and two colonels. They declared they were defecting.
The group said the defections came Thursday — the same day a Syria fighter pilot flew his MiG-21 warplane to neighboring Jordan, where he was given asylum.
Thousands of soldiers have abandoned the regime, but most are low-level conscripts. The Free Syria Army, the loosely linked group of rebel forces, is made up partly of Syrian army defectors.
Also Friday, Syria’s state-run news agency said “terrorist groups” killed and mutilated several people in the northern Aleppo province.
The Syrian government refers to rebels as terrorists.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
