Lieutenant colonel Hussein Harmoush, the first military officer to publicly declare his desertion from the Syrian army in early June, said late Thursday after his capture by Syria that no one had ordered him to fire at civilians.
‘During my service in the Syrian Army, nobody has ordered me to fire at the civilians or any others, I didn’t see or hear any commander in the army that had given orders to shoot fire at the civilians,’ Harmoush said during his confession on Syrian television.
Harmoush, who defected from the Syrian army in early June and has formed the Brigade of Free Officers, a self-styled group of army defectors, was said to have been abducted by Syrian intelligence agents from Turkey and brought back to Syria.
However, Lebanese media said Harmoush was handed over to the Syrian authorities by Turkey after the two countries struck a deal, but they did not elaborate.
Last week, three alleged army defectors were killed in Ablin, the hometown of Harmoush, where security forces raided the town and abducted Mohammed Harmoush, the colonel’s brother, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Harmoush said after his escape from the army, a lot of Syrian opposition figures who live abroad have contacted him.
He claimed that he later discovered that the majority of the Syrian opposition figures had given him promises, ‘including financial and logistic aid, weapons and others, but none has been met.’
An estimated 2,600 people have been killed in Syria during the unrest that started six months ago. The international community have accused Syria of using live ammunition against the unarmed pro-democracy protesters, who are calling for the ousting of Syrian president Bashar al Assad.
