Syria: more violence but more desertions

Monday saw Syrian security forces raiding several towns and cities across the country with reports of six people killed and dozens wounded. However these reports were tempered by the news of dozens of soldiers having deserted their positions in Rastan, a village near Homs. Possibly encouraged by the rout of Col. Muammar Gaddafi, these men apparently have joined the five-month-old popular uprising against President Assad and the Baath Party.

Early Monday morning Rastan was surrounded by tanks and armored vehicles. According to activists, these forces opened fire with heavy machine guns. One woman was killed and five people injured. Tens of people were arrested in house to house raids in this town of 40,000.

Rastan has been a source of recruits for the Sunni rank-and-file army. The army is for the most part led by officers from the Alawite minority sect to which Assad belongs. Three months ago there was a military operation to crush big demonstrations against Assad and activists claimed that dozens were killed and hundreds arrested. It was here in Rastan that reports first surfaced of defections by solders.

Rastan is also the home town of Moustafa Tlas, Syria’s former defense minister who served for three decades. He retired in 2006. Mr. Tlas has been critical of the current regime’s crackdown on pro-democracy activists and as of this moment, his reaction to this latest military operation is not known.

Al Jazeera is publishing something called the Free Officers Live Blog:

A statement published online by the Free Officers, a group that says it represents army defectors, says “large defections” occurred in Harasta and security forces and shabiha loyal to Assad were chasing the defectors in the direction of the gardens and districts inside Damascus”.

The statement said a colonel in the Air Force Intelligence, who had been in charge of raids and arrests by the secret police, was hit by a bullet in his head in the nearby suburb of Saqba.

Activists and residents have apparently been reporting increasing defections among Syrian troops since the demise of Muammar Gaddafi’s rule in Libya. Since media has been expelled from the country since the uprising began, much information cannot be confirmed. Syrian authorities have repeatedly denied that any army defections have taken place. Activists state that there have been desertions in eastern Deir al-Zor province, northwestern Idlib province, the Homs countryside and the outskirts of Damascus, where security forces fought gunbattles with defectors Sunday.

Iran distances itself

Rumours have been circulating that the Assad government has been getting outside assistance. The Arab and international press have accused both Iran and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, of helping Syrian authorities deal with the popular uprising. Former Iranian President Abolhassan Bani Sadr, now an exiled opponent of Iran’s government, claims he has information that 3,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards and 2,200 Hezbollah fighters are in Syria working with the government.

However Iran may be changing its stance towards the country. Last week, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, urged Syria to address its people’s “legitimate demands.” This change in policy towards its ally could be interpreted as an admission on the part of Iran that the Syrian regime is destined to collapse.

Turkey has lost confidence

Turkey continues to dance around the idea of asking Assad to leave but Turkish President Abdullah Gul was blunt on Sunday when he said that he had “lost confidence” in the Syrian regime. Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying, “Today in the world there is no place for authoritarian administrations, one-party rule, closed regimes. These will either be changed by force or by the initiative of those who rule.”

Published on Aug 29, 2011 by Euronews

Syrian army defections reported on the rise

Syrians living in a small town in the centre of the country claim an armoured column of government tanks fired heavy machine guns on them because dozens of soldiers had defected. Witnesses say soldiers began changing sides three months ago in Rastan which is about 20 kilometres north of Homs. Activists report an increasing number of army desertions since the fall of the Gaddafi regime in Libya. Pictures posted on the internet purport to show residents in Homs calling for President Assad to be executed.

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