Top Syrian General Defects With 50 Troops

Violence against protesters has not halted since the arrival of Arab League monitors

A senior general in the Syrian regime has announced he is defecting from the army with up to 50 of his soldiers, as Arab League monitors continue to wrestle with President Bashar al Assad’s ongoing violence against protesters.

Colonel Afeef Mahmoud Suleiman said the Assad regime’s brutal repression of protesters was unacceptable.

“We are from the army and we have defected because the government is killing civilian protesters,” he said. “The Syrian army attacked Hama with heavy weapons, air raids and heavy fire from tanks.”

The prime minister of Qatar said on Friday that Syria was not complying with the deal agreed upon by the Arab League which intended to end the 10-month long bloody crackdown. Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said the army had not withdrawn from Syrian cities, as required inthe deal, had not withdrawn, adding that there had been no end to killing since the arrival of monitors.

The Arab League will discuss the report written up by the monitors on Sunday.

Author: John Glaser

John Glaser writes for Antiwar.com.