Syrian army deserters ‘willing to pay whatever the price to end Assad’ | News | National Post

Syrian army deserters ‘willing to pay whatever the price to end Assad’ | News | National Post

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ANTAKYA, Turkey – Ayham Kurdi refused to open fire on unarmed protesters and is now an enemy of the Syrian state.

A captain in President Bashar al-Assad’s army, Kurdi, 30, a soft-spoken man with a trimmed black moustache, deserted his post in June and fled to neighbouring Turkey with his family.

He is now a member of the Free Syrian Army, a loose collection of deserters who are fighting to topple Assad.

Other Free Army officers have taken refuge in Turkey as well, including the group’s most senior commander, from where they communicate and coordinate operations with rebel units inside Syria.

“I left because of the massacres of civilians in Syria. Every day the regime is killing up to 30 people in Homs and sending tanks to the streets,” he said, referring to the city that has become the focus of protests against Assad.

Speaking to Reuters over thick dark coffee in the house of a Syrian DemigrDe in the southern Turkish city of Antakya, Kurdi said the Free Army needed more weapons and equipment, and that foreign intervention might be needed to prevent Syria from descending into civil war or a drawn-out conflict.

FOREIGN INTERVENTION

“If there is no foreign intervention and the international community does not step in to assist Syria, the situation is unlikely to change and the regime can last for a long time,” he said.

“If Arab states fail to stop a bloodbath it would be an obligation for Europe and the U.S. to intervene militarily. We prefer a diplomatic solution but if this fails we would want a military intervention. This could take the form of a no-fly zone and a buffer zone,” Kurdi said. [ read more at link ]