CNN reports:
Manaf Tlas, a Sunni general in Syria’s elite Republican Guards, has defected, a Western diplomat said Friday, a stunning blow to the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Tlas, the son of a former Syrian defense minister and cousin of a first lieutenant in al-Assad’s army, is possibly the most senior Sunni in a power structure dominated by the Alawite minority.
“He’s an inside confidant of Assad. So it counts that even an insider thinks it’s time to go,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to speak to the media.
