More and more officers and soldiers have deserted and cross over to strengthen the ranks of the armed opposition. The regular army has turned into "a gang of murderers and destroyers." After the massacre of Halfaya, more than 1,000 Syrians have fled to Turkey. The appeal of Benedict XVI for a political solution to the crisis.

Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Abulaziz al-Shalal, Syrian military police commander, has defected from the army of Bashar al-Assad and fled to Turkey to lend his support to the opposition. He himself gave a public announcement in a video posted on Youtube. Gen. Abulaziz al-Shalal (see photo), one of the highest officers of the regime, said he made his decision because "the army [Syrian] has deviated from its fundamental mission to protect the Syrian people and become a gang of murderers and destroyers". Al Shalal added that in the regular army "there are many other high-ranking officers who want to defect, but the situation is not favorable for them."

According to security sources the Syrian, the defection of al-Shalal does not really matter because he was about to retire.

In any case, more and more soldiers and officers are leaving the army disgusted by the massacres that affect family, friends, the home villages of the troops.

Four days ago, for Halfaya, in the province of Hama, an airstrike killed dozens of people who were in line trying to buy bread. The government in Ankara has said that after the massacre at least 1100 Syrians crossed the border, and that now there are about 148 thousand war refugees in Turkey.

Meanwhile, in Damascus, the UN peace envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, has held talks with "legal" opposition figures, accepted by the regime, but refused by the armed opposition groups who want the ouster of Bashar Assad. Previously Brahimi had had an interview with Assad on "the many steps to be taken in the future," but has not explained what these steps are.

On Christmas Day, Benedict XVI underlined the urgent need for peace to Syria, stressing the importance of a political solution, "May peace - he said in his Urbi et Orbi Message - spring up for the people of Syria, deeply wounded and divided by a conflict which does not spare even the defenceless and reaps innocent victims. Once again I appeal for an end to the bloodshed, easier access for the relief of refugees and the displaced, and dialogue in the pursuit of a political solution to the conflict."

 

• syria
• assad
• military
• police
• chief
• desertion
• UN
• brahimi
• opposition
• refugees