Report: General who heads Syria's military police defects and joins opposition
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A pan-Arab TV station says the general who heads Syria's military police has defected and joined the uprising against President Bashar Assad.
Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal has appeared in a video aired on Al Arabiya TV saying he is joining "the people's revolution."
In the video aired late Tuesday, al-Shallal said the army deviated from its mission of protecting the nation and became "a gang for killing and destruction."
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Dozens of generals have defected since Syria's crisis began in March 2011 but al-Shallal is one of the most senior and held a top post at the time that he left.
In July, Manaf Tlass, a Syrian general, was the first member of Assad's inner circle to break ranks and join the opposition.