Friday, October 7, 2011

Exclusive: War is only option to topple Syrian leader: colonel



AN IMPORTANT PIECE

ANTAKYA, Turkey Fri Oct 7, 2011 12:57pm EDT

"(Reuters) - The most senior officer to defect from Syria's armed forces has said there is no option but to topple President Bashar al-Assad by force and he was directing a military uprising against the Syrian leader from within Turkey.

Colonel Riad al-As'aad, who is now living under Turkish government protection in Hatay province on the Syrian border, said some 15,000 soldiers, including officers, had already deserted, and he was waiting to move his command inside Syria.

As'aad, A slim, softly-spoken man dressed in civilian clothes and open-collared shirt, said rebel soldiers were forming brigades around the country who were setting up ambushes against government forces to prevent them entering villages.

Morale in the Syrian army, he said, was low.

"Without a war, he will not fall. Whoever leads with force, cannot be removed except by force," As'aad told Reuters in a Syrian refugee camp in Hatay.

"The regime used a lot of oppressive and murderous tactics so I left, so that I will be the face outside for the command inside, because we have to be in a secure area and right now there is no safety in all of Syria," he said.....

The 50-year-old colonel, who served as an engineer in Syria's air force for 31 years, said the Syrian government had started to harass him and other officers when pro-democracy protests first started in Tunisia.

"During the revolution in Tunisia, the regime started getting ready. It felt there will be a revolution in Syria. So it (stepped up security), hired spies to harass us. We were always under surveillance," he said.....

As'aad says he commands the Syrian Free Army, which he helped form after his defection and that they had joined forces with another rebel force, the Free Officers movement, which activists have said is led by Lieutenant Abdelrahman Sheikh inside Syria.

"We're all one group, we're all one army. We're all waiting, the defecting brothers are working inside," he said.

As'aad said 10-15,000 soldiers, out of the roughly 200,000-strong military, had defected all over the country and that desertions were continuing every day.....

"The regime is weakening and the biggest proof, is that they're using air support in addition to tanks and artillery, that proves their weakness."....

"The regime depends on a sect ... and it is a sectarian and discriminatory regime. But our people are wiser than that. All Syrians are one people, whether Alawite, Druze or Christian or even the Kurds. We respect them we consider them our family," he said.

There had so far been no defections from Syria's political elite as happened in Libya, As'aad said, because they were tied too closely through economic interests or positions.

As'aad said he did not want to see any foreign soldiers in Syria but that the international community should provide the rebels with weapons and enforce a no-fly zone...."

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