Syria's army weakened by growing desertions
(Reuters) - The most senior commander to abandon the Syrian military during a 10-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad said desertions were wearing down the army but rebels could take more than a year to topple him. General Mostafa Ahmad al-Sheikh told Reuters that up to 20,000 soldiers, mostly majority Sunni Muslims, have deserted despite "iron controls" and large swathes of land are regularly falling into rebel hands before loyalist forces mount operations to retake them.
Sheikh said he decided to desert after he was told that a security police unit gang-raped the 20-year-old bride of a young anti-Assad activist in the countryside near Hama, and after security police sexually abused and filmed students who had rallied in the main commercial hub of Aleppo, whose influential merchants support Assad or have taken no side in the conflict.
He said he was still adjusting to freedom.
"We have lived 40 years in repression. The regime has separated brother from brother, along with murder and torture on an unimaginable scale. Syrians still need to believe that they are human beings," he said, referring to four decades of rule by Assad and his father, who took power in a 1970 coup.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/13/uk-syria-defections-idUKTRE80C0ST20120113
