Senior Syrian official defects, joins rebels

A senior official at the Syrian Oil Ministry said late Thursday he had resigned and joined the "Syrian revolution" against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, dpa reported. Abdu Hossam al-Deen said in footage posted on the YouTube website that he had quit his post as an aide to the oil minister, becoming the most senior Syrian civilian official to defect since the pro-democracy revolt started in March 2011. "I announce joining the revolution of these brave people who will not accept humiliation despite the brutality exercised by the regime and its loyalists to suppress the people's demands for freedom and dignity," he added Hossam al-Deen, 68, added that he had also decided to quit the ruling Baath Party despite being aware that al-Assad's regime would hunt for his family. "I do not want to be part of the regime's crimes," he said. The United Nations has put the number of people killed in Syria's conflict at well over 7,500 in the last 11 months. The death toll includes some 500 children.