France Urges Syrian Troops to Defect

France urges Syrian military personnel to follow the example of fighter pilot Hassan Hammadeh and defect, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

Hammadeh, a colonel in the Syrian air force, landed his MiG-21 fighter jet in Jordan on Thursday and requested political asylum, which has been granted.

Hammadeh is the first pilot to defect with his aircraft since anti-government protests in Syria began more than a year ago.

But he joins a growing list of defectors from the Syrian armed forces. Their actions “deserve our gratitude and the gratitude of the Syrian people,” Valero said.

According to UN estimates, about 12,000 people have been killed in Syria since the beginning of a popular uprising against President Assad in March 2011.

Syria grounds fighter-bomber fleet for fear of more defections

Bashar Assad Thursday night, June 21, ordered his entire Air Force fleet of fighter bombers grounded, for fear that more pilots might defect after Col. Hasan Merhi al-Hamadeh flew to Jordan aboard a MiG-21.

Officials in Damascus noted that the same day was chosen by Washington to confirm that CIA officers were present in southern Turkey to help the Free Syrian Army rebels fight the Syrian government.

Syrian officials are convinced that the defection of the pilot with his plane was organized by the Americans and that more are in the pipeline in an attempt to show the Syrian people and Arab world that even the Syrian air force, the part of the armed forces most loyal to Assad, was in fact slipping out of his hands.