Syrian secret police defect

At LEAST a dozen Syrian secret police have defected from an intelligence compound, activists said yesterday, in what appeared to be the first major desertion from a service that has acted as a pillar of president Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

A gunfight broke out overnight after the defectors fled the Airforce Intelligence complex in the centre of Idlib city, 175 miles north-west of Damascus, and ten people on both sides were killed or wounded, the activists said.

One activist said army defectors helped the deserters escape.