Defected Syrian colonel plots guerrilla attacks against Assad regime

Justin Vela
The Independent
October 10, 2011

The most senior officer to defect from Syria’s armed forces is plotting a series of guerrilla attacks and targeted assassinations from self-imposed exile in Turkey in an attempt to topple the regime.

Colonel Riad al-As’aad, 50, is the head of a newly formed Syrian Free Army – a force made up of defectors from the Syrian military – devoted to overthrowing the regime of Bashar al-Assad by military force in apparent connivance with his Turkish protectors. “They [the regime] forced us to respond,” he told The Independent. “We are organised inside. We are soldiers, we are working. Our power is slowly growing.”

Colonel As’aad said that he co-ordinates daily with officers on the ground through intermediaries moving between Syria and Turkey.

Read full report here

This article was posted: Monday, October 10, 2011 at 8:12 am

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