CNN, June 21, 2012 — A Syrian military pilot fled to Jordan Thursday and was granted asylum, a day after the United States warned members of the Syrian military they could face international criminal prosecution for attacks on civilians.
The defection came as an opposition group reported 89 deaths in Syria on Thursday, including more than 10 children. The Syrian government reported 20 “army, law enforcement and civilian martyrs” buried Thursday.
A ship carrying military helicopters to Syria is returning to Russia, but will ultimately deliver the shipment to Syria, Russia announced.
Part of an international row over Russia arming Syria, the ship was forced to turn back after a British company withdrew its insurance coverage due to the nature of the cargo.
Russia announced it was carrying “Syrian attack helicopters,” state-run news agency Ria Novosti reported.
“The ship was carrying air defense systems which can only be used to repel foreign aggression,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.
It carried three repaired Syrian helicopters that will still be sent to Syria, the reports said. The ship has been flying a Curacao flag, but it will be switched to a Russian flag “in order to avoid a possible detention of the ship,” the state-run Itar-Tass news agency reported.
Many world leaders have slammed Russia for arming Syria, but Russian officials insist they want an end to the conflict.
The dead in the latest violence Thursday included 18 killed in a “massacre” in the town of Inkhel and 12 in a massacre in Douma in the Damascus suburbs, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were reports many more bodies could be buried under rubble of destroyed buildings in Inkhel.
Since the uprising began in March 2011, violence has killed more than 15,000 people in Syria, including 10,480 civilians, 3,715 soldiers, and 830 defectors, the observatory said.
The United Nations has said at least 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime blames “armed terrorist groups” for the violence in the country.
The defecting military pilot who landed in his jet in Jordan had requested political asylum, the Jordanian government said.
Syria identified him as Col. Hassan Mirei al-Hamadeh. Jordan did not immediately give his name.
The pilot is “considered a fugitive from the service, a traitor to his country and to his military honor,” the Syrian Defense Ministry said in a banner shown on Syrian state TV. Punishment actions “will be taken against him according to the laws and regulations,” the banner said.
Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said, “We welcome this pilot’s decision to do the right thing. We have long called for the military and members of the Syrian regime to defect and abandon their positions rather than be complicit in the regime’s atrocities.
“This is just one of countless instances where Syrians, including members of the security forces, have rejected the horrific actions of the Assad regime, and it certainly will not be the last.”
The defection came less than a day after the U.S. ambassador to Syria announced that members of the Syrian military taking part in attacks on civilians could one day face international criminal prosecution.
Syria said it had lost contact with an aircraft that was on a training flight near Syria’s southern border.
Both Syria and Jordan said the aircraft was a Russian-made MiG-21
Throughout the 15-month conflict in Syria, numerous members of the military have defected, some of them joining the rebel Free Syrian Army.
Thousands of civilians also have fled to neighboring nations, including Jordan.
U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford announced Wednesday that “the United States and the international community will work with the Syrian people to locate the military members responsible” for attacks on civilians, and will “hold them accountable.”
In a post on Facebook, Ford — who has been in the United States since the U.S. Embassy closed in February — cited the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which indicted 161 people, including members of the military, “for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against non-combatants and combatants.”
“Members of the Syrian military should reconsider their support for a regime that is losing the battle,” he added. “The Assad regime cannot outlast the desire of Syrian people for a democratic state.
“The officers and soldiers of the Syrian military have a choice to make. Do they want to expose themselves to criminal prosecution by supporting the barbaric actions of the Assad regime against the Syrian people? Or do they want to help secure the role of the professional military in a democratic Syria by supporting the Syrian people and their transition to an inclusive, tolerant and representative democracy that respects human rights and equal, fair treatment for all components of the Syrian nation?”