Senior Syrian military officer defects

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Washongton Post:

ANTAKYA, Turkey — A powerful military officer and longtime close associate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has defected and was on his way to Paris, where foreign ministers from Friends of Syria countries are meeting, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed Friday.

In what could be the first sign of a crack in the Assad regime’s inner circle, Maj. Gen. Manaf Tlas fled to Turkey this week before heading for France to join his father, a once-powerful former defense minister, a close family friend told Reuters.

Word of the purported defection quickly buzzed through social media sites run by the Syrian opposition, which gleefully posted pictures of Assad and Tlas posing together in a reminder of how close the two had been.

The pro-Assad Web site Syria Steps reported that Tlas, who heads the elite Republican Guard, had joined the opposition--although other Web sites and opposition leaders said it was unclear whether Tlas would ally himself with the rebels battling Assad’s forces.

Either way, it appeared to be the most senior defection since the uprising against Assad began more than 15 months ago.

The Web site of the Tartous Today newspaper, which also supports the Assad government, carried a report from the Shaam News Network saying that Tlas had disappeared in the Syrian capital, Damascus, two days earlier but that the network had not published the information because of the “sensitivity of the situation.”

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Hmmm! Regime cracking?