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The colonel and 50 of his men said they had taken on a new mission to ensure the safety of protesters in Hama during demonstrations.
A senior military official from the Syrian city of Hama has defected along with up to 50 soldiers. to protest the government’s 10-month crackdown on peaceful demonstrations that has claimed thousands of lives across the country.
Colonel Afif Mahmoud Suleiman of the Air Force Logistics Department announced the defection live on Al Jazeera’s Arabic news channel on Saturday.
Suleiman said he and his subordinates had taken on a new mission to keep protesters in Hama safe during demonstrations.
“We are from the military, but we defected because the government is killing civilian protesters. The Syrian army attacked Hama with heavy weapons, air raids and heavy fire from tanks,” Suleiman said. said.
“We call on Arab League observers to visit areas affected by air raids and attacks and see for themselves the damage.
“And please send someone to excavate the three cemeteries in Hama, which are filled with over 460 bodies.”
Observers from the regional bloc are trying to assess whether President Bashar al-Assad’s government is complying with a peace deal aimed at ending its crackdown on opposition.
The group’s defection from the military came four days after another senior official defected to the anti-government movement in protest of government measures.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Cairo, Mahmoud Suleiman Haji Hamad, chief inspector general of the country’s defense ministry, rejected government claims that the ongoing violence was caused by “terrorists” backed by foreign countries.
Meanwhile, President Assad met with Mustafa Kamarak, leader of Turkey’s Islamist-based Felicity Party.
Saturday.
Syrian state television reported that Kamarak “expressed the Turkish people’s support for the Syrian people and their confrontation with the plots that have sprung up against the Turkish people.”
In November, the Turkish government announced a series of economic sanctions targeting the Syrian government.
They are trying to persuade them to end the bloody crackdown on the popular uprising, which is now in its 10th month.
‘Iron fist’
Meanwhile, Syrian activists said at least 32 people were killed by government security forces following Friday’s protests.
Syrian authorities said on the same day that at least 26 people were killed when an explosion occurred at a busy intersection in the capital and crashed into a police bus.
The incident, in which state television showed pools of blood in the street, was the second deadly attack in the capital in recent weeks.
Rebels have accused the government of staging the bombing and have called for an independent investigation into the blast in the central Al Maidan district.
Following the explosion, the Syrian government vowed to fight back with an “iron fist” against those it called “terrorists.”
Col. Riyad al-Assaad, head of the self-proclaimed Free Syrian Army, dismissed government reports of the attack, saying Friday’s explosion was “the work of the regime, just like the last time.”
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