Ambassador to Iraq defects

The first ambassador to abandon Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has called on the army to “turn your guns on the criminals” of the government.

Nawaf al-Fares, below, a Sunni who has close ties to the security services, was Syria’s ambassador to Iraq, one of its few friends in the region.

Coming just days after the desertion of Manaf Tlas, a Sunni brigadier general in the Republican Guard who grew up with the president, Mr Fares’s defection gave the anti-Assad uprising one of its biggest boosts in 16 months of bloodshed.

Brig Gen Tlas, the son of a veteran former Syrian defence minister, has made no public comment since fleeing to Paris where he is believed to be talking to the oppostion. But Mr Fares posted a video statement on Facebook late on Wednesday that said regime forces had been killing civilians.

“I declare I have joined the ranks of the revolution of the Syrian people,” he said. “I ask members of the military to join the revolution and defend the country and citizens. Turn your guns on the criminals from this regime. Every Syrian man has to join the revolution to remove this nightmare and this gang,” he said, accusing the Assad family and its allies of “destroying society”.