High-Profile Defectors from Syria
- Prime Minister Riad Hijab defected to Jordan on August 6, two months after taking top post.
- Nawaf Fares, Syria's ambassador to Iraq became first Syrian envoy to defect on July 11, 2012.
- Brigadier General Manaf Tlass, highest ranking military officer to abandon Syrian government on July 6, 2012.
- Colonel Hassan Hammadeh flew his MiG-21 warplane to neighboring Jordan during a June, 2012, training mission and was granted asylum.
- Imad Ghalioun, member of Syria’s parliament, left country in January, 2012, to join opposition.
- Adnan Bakkour, former attorney general of Hama, appeared in video in late August 2011 announcing he had defected.