الرئيسية
By Reuters
AMMAN (Reuters) - At least a dozen Syrian secret police have
defected from an intelligence compound in a restive province near
Turkey, the first major defection reported within the security apparatus
leading the crackdown on protesters, activists said on Sunday.
A
gunfight broke out overnight after the defectors fled the Airforce
Intelligence complex in the centre of Idlib city, 280 kms (175 miles)
northwest of Damascus, and ten people on both sides were killed or
wounded, they said.
One activist in the city, who gave his name
as Alaa, said army defectors based in the nearby Jabal al-Zawiya region
were seen near the compound and helped the deserters escape in what
appeared to be a coordinated operation.
"Armored vehicles from an
army barracks outside Idlib were called in to help defend the compound.
The sound of AK-47s and machineguns echoed till dawn," he said.
Opposition
sources estimate the number of defectors from the security forces at
several thousand, mainly army recruits from Syria's Sunni Muslim
majority. President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority sect has a tight
grip on the country's military and security apparatus.
(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Amman newsroom; editing by Tim Pearce)
AMMAN (Reuters) - At least a dozen Syrian secret police have
defected from an intelligence compound in a restive province near
Turkey, the first major defection reported within the security apparatus
leading the crackdown on protesters, activists said on Sunday.
A
gunfight broke out overnight after the defectors fled the Airforce
Intelligence complex in the centre of Idlib city, 280 kms (175 miles)
northwest of Damascus, and ten people on both sides were killed or
wounded, they said.
One activist in the city, who gave his name
as Alaa, said army defectors based in the nearby Jabal al-Zawiya region
were seen near the compound and helped the deserters escape in what
appeared to be a coordinated operation.
"Armored vehicles from an
army barracks outside Idlib were called in to help defend the compound.
The sound of AK-47s and machineguns echoed till dawn," he said.
Opposition
sources estimate the number of defectors from the security forces at
several thousand, mainly army recruits from Syria's Sunni Muslim
majority. President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority sect has a tight
grip on the country's military and security apparatus.
(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Amman newsroom; editing by Tim Pearce)