Syrian general close to Assad defects

Manaf Tlas, a Republican Guard commander and friend of the president, has fled and is reportedly bound for Paris.

manaf tlas syriahistory.com website sami moubayed
Manaf Tlas, son of former defence minister, attended military college with Assad [syrianhistory.com/Al Jazeera]

A Syrian general and personal friend of President Bashar al-Assad, who was apparently sidelined a year ago, has defected and fled Syria.

Opposition activists have told Al Jazeera that Manaf Tlas, a brigade commander in Assad’s Republican Guard, has left the country and will soon announce that he abandoned Assad because of anger over civilian deaths during the 16-month uprising.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed on Friday that Tlas, who attended military college with the 46-year-old Assad, had defected and was bound for Paris.

Tlas is the son of Mustafa Tlas, who served as defence minister for 30 years under former president Hafez al-Assad and briefly under his son, the current president.

A witness in Damascus said by telephone that Tlas’ house in Damascus was ransacked on Thursday by security agents after these reports.

Riad al-Asaad, the commander with the Free Syrian Army, told Al Jazeera from Turkey: “Our people picked [Tlas] up from the borders with Syria”. Asaad said on Thursday that he had not yet met with Tlas. 

Ankara did not immediately confirm the reports. Syriasteps, a news website close to Assad’s security services, quoted a Syrian official as saying Tlas was in Turkey.

Syriasteps wrote: “His desertion means nothing. If Syrian intelligence had wanted to arrest him it would have.”

‘Apparent decision’

A source in the opposition said a relative of Tlas had confirmed his defection.

“It’s a very important defection,” the source said. “His brigade is very attached to their general, so we can say the true defection has started.”

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity from Washington, said, “General Tlas is a big name and his apparent decision to ditch Assad hurts, even though it probably didn’t come as a surprise”.

“Tlas lately seems to have been on the outs, but he’s got charisma and some smarts. If he joins the insurgents, that could be significant,” the official said.

The Tlas family is from Rastan, in central Homs province, a town that has seen large anti-government protests since the uprising began in March 2011.

Rastan later witnessed heavy fighting between government forces and members of the Free Syrian Army. It is now mostly under the control of the opposition. 

‘Sidelined a year ago’

According to the source with close ties to Damascus, Tlas had embarked on several unsuccessful reconciliation missions between government loyalists and rebels in Rastan and the southern province of Daraa.

A member in the elite Republican Guard, Tlas was sidelined more than a year ago, after he was deemed unreliable.

Months later he gave up his military uniform and opted for civilian clothing. He set up residence in Damascus, where he let his beard and hair grow long.

Another source in Damascus told AFP news agency that Tlas’ relations with the authorities became irreconcilable after the fierce assault on the Homs district of Bab Amr in February this year.

The father of Tlas, who served as defence minister between 1972 and 2004, was in office during the 1982 Hama Massacre, which reportedly left between 20,000 and 48,000 people dead.

Many opposition activists accuse the older Tlas of complicity, and have called for him to be prosecuted for war crimes.

Another member of the Tlas family is Abdul Razzak Tlas, a popular commander of the FSA in Homs and a former First Lieutenant in the the Syrian army who defected last year.

Ahmet Davutoglu, foreign minister of Turkey, said defections proved that the Syrian government is crumbling.

“There are soldiers escaping, they are reporting to us that they are being instructed to attack people and because of that they had to escape in order not to kill civilians,” Davutoglu told France 24 television.
 
“Every day, generals, colonels, officers are coming, and we have, I think, around 20 generals and maybe 100 high-rank officers, colonels.”

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies