THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Members of Bashar al-Assad's inner circle 'making secret plans to defect' as Syria air force colonel abandons attack mission and flies MiG to Jordan.Members of Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle are secretly making plans to defect to the opposition should the Syrian regime become critically threatened by the rebellion, US officials have told The Daily Telegraph.
Senior military figures are understood to be laying down “exit strategies” and establishing lines of communication with the rebels to discuss how they would be received if they deserted.
On Thursday a Syrian air force colonel became the first senior officer to defect in an aircraft after he abandoned a mission to attack the city of Dera’a and landed his MiG 21 fighter jet in Jordan.
The Daily Telegraph understands that the pilots of three other MiGs on the mission also considered defecting, but were worried about being turned away. » | Ruth Sherlock, Beirut, Suha Maayeh in Amman and Peter Foster in Washington | Thursday, June 21, 2012
