Top Syrian army officials, soldiers defect

BEIRUT -- The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad suffered an embarrassing string of high-ranking defections, with dozens of soldiers, including senior officers, reported to have fled to neighboring Turkey, officials said yesterday.

The crisis also deepened in the region when Turkey's deputy prime minister said Syrian forces opened fire on a second Turkish plane that was searching for the wreckage of a jet shot down last week by Damascus.

Turkey said it would push NATO to consider Syria's downing of the Turkish jet as an attack on the whole military alliance, and NATO's governing body is to meet today to discuss the incident. It's unlikely, however, that the alliance will take armed action against Syria.

Since the Syrian uprising began last year, thousands of soldiers, most of them low-level conscripts, have deserted and joined the rebels. High-level defections appear to be increasing.

According to a Turkish Foreign Ministry official, a brigadier general defected to Turkey in recent days. If confirmed, it would be one of the highest-level defections. Gen. Mostafa Ahmad al-Sheik, who fled to Turkey in January, was the highest-ranking officer to bolt at the time.

The Turkish official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government rules.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency also said yesterday that 33 soldiers defected overnight, including a general and two colonels.

Although the defections are notable, Assad's regime has remained remarkably airtight, particularly compared with the hemorrhaging of Moammar Gadhafi's inner circle in Libya in 2011.

Within weeks of the Libyan revolt, a number of Libyan ambassadors and other high-ranking officials quit the government, and many joined the opposition leadership. The early defection of huge sections of the army in eastern Libya gave the rebel movement a safe zone where they could freely organize their political and military strategies.

Syria has seen nothing similar, with armed groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army but lacking much coordination.