AMMAN - More than 10,000 soldiers have deserted the Syrian army and defectors are attacking security police who enforce loyalty to President Bashar Assad, a high-ranking defector said on Friday.
Colonel Riad al-Asaad told Reuters that guerrilla-style attacks were concentrating on Military and Air Force Intelligence, secret police personnel entrusted with preventing mutiny in the military, who have been behind some of the biggest attacks on pro-democracy protesters.
RELATED:Syrian envoy summoned by US after embassy attack 7 Syrian soldiers die as armed resistance emerges "They have a major role behind the military units and on roadblocks to shoot soldiers who disobey orders," Asaad said by telephone from an undisclosed location on the Syrian-Turkish border. Insurgent operations had "improved markedly in quality" in the last week, he said.
Asaad said fighting had also taken place with army forces but that
defectors had been trying not to engage the military to help rally
support for their cause.
The military and security apparatus has remained mostly under Assad's
control but army deserters, many of whom have reportedly defected
because they refused to shoot at demonstrators, have formed a rebel unit
called the Syrian Free Army under the command of Asaad, a 50-year-old
Air Force officer from Idlib near the border with Turkey.
"Morale in the army is low and defections are mounting all over Syria,
although many soldiers are waiting because the regime will kill them or
kill their families if they leave," Asaad said.
"Our goal is to protect the peaceful demonstrations and bring down the
regime," he said, adding there were more than 10,000 defectors out of
the 200,000-member army.
Asaad declined to estimate how long Assad could hold on to power but
said international support for the rebels, off the table for now, would
help "bring down the regime very quickly".
Defectors surrounded in Rastan
Assad's troops and security personnel, backed by helicopters and tanks,
have attacked the central town of Rastan where hundreds of insurgents
had taken refuge.
Command of the mostly Sunni Muslim military is in the hands of officers
from Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that also
dominates the security apparatus and the ruling elite in the majority
Sunni country.
The Rastan area is a recruiting ground for Sunni conscripts who provide
most of the manpower in the military. Local activists said the rebel
operations there were being led by Lieutenant Abdelrahman Sheikh of the
Free Officers movement, which allied with the Syrian Free Army last
week.
"The situation in Rastan is difficult. It is surrounded from all corners
but the rebels have road bombs and the attacking forces have not yet
managed to mount a full-scale assault on the town," Asaad said.
"If they overtake Rastan it will become their graveyard. The rebels have resorted to guerrilla warfare," he added.
Without mentioning Alawite or Sunnis by name, Asaad said morale had
plummeted in the military because of sectarian bias brought to the
surface during the uprising and that assaults on rural areas to put down
pro-democracy protests were leading to ever wider cracks appearing
among the rank and file.
"The whole structure of the state is sectarian. The soldiers are
repressed and disquiet has been building up from the way army commanders
are chosen," he said.
Asked about the military command, Asaad said Bashar Assad was directly
issuing detailed orders on how to crush the uprising, with his younger
brother Maher, who commands the Fourth Division, playing a major role,
especially in Damascus and its suburbs.
He said the attacking forces on Rastan were composed of Military
Intelligence and Air Force Intelligence personnel, as well as selected
troops from the 11th, 14th, 15th and 18th divisions.
Around 70 insurgents and civilians have been killed in the attack on
Rastan since Tuesday, Asaad said, estimating casualties among the
attacking forces in the hundreds.
The state news agency said seven soldiers and police were killed in the
operation against "terrorists" in Rastan and another 32 were wounded,
adding that the army had "inflicted big losses on the armed terrorist
groups."