Former Syrian Defence Minister General Ali Habib, a prominent member of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect, has not defected and is now in his house not in Turkey, Syrian News Agency SANA said not as Reuters reported according to senior member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition on Wednesday.
Reuters assured the defecting through dr. Kamal al-Labwani who said from Paris, "Ali Habib has managed to escape from the grip of the regime and he is now in Turkey, but this does not mean that he has joined the opposition. I was told this by a Western diplomatic official."
If his defection is confirmed, Reuters said, Habib would be the highest ranking Alawite figure to break with Assad since the uprising against his rule began in 2011.
A Gulf source told Reuters that Habib had defected on Tuesday evening, arriving at the Turkish frontier before midnight with two or three other people. He was then taken across the border in a convoy of vehicles.
Born in 1939, Habib was defense minister from June 2009 to August 2011 and has also served as Chief of the General Staff of the Syrian Army. He is from the port city of Tartus.
Some opposition sources say that Habib disagreed with the use of force against protesters at the start of the revolt in 2011. Those sources say he was dismissed as minister for his opinion about the use of force. He later said he had left the post for health reasons.
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