LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Opposition activists have told Al Jazeera that Tlas, a brigade commander in Assad's Republican Guard will shortly announce that he has abandoned Assad over the mounting civilian deaths during the 16-month uprising.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has confirmed that Tlas, who attended military college with the 46-year-old Assad, has defected and was bound for Paris. The son of Mustafa Tlas, Manaf Tlas has served as defense minister for 30 years under former president Hafez al-Assad and briefly under his son, the current president.

A witness in Damascus said says that Tlas' house in Damascus was ransacked this week by security agents after these reports.

"Our people picked [Tlas] up from the borders with Syria," Riad al-Asaad, the commander with the Free Syrian Army, told Al Jazeera from Turkey. The commander has not yet met with Tlas.

The news Web site Syriasteps, aligned with Assad's security services, quoted a Syrian official as saying Tlas was in Turkey. "His desertion means nothing. If Syrian intelligence had wanted to arrest him it would have."

One source say the defection is very significant. "It's a very important defection . His brigade is very attached to their general, so we can say the true defection has started."
 
A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity from Washington says that "General Tlas is a big name and his apparent decision to ditch Assad hurts, even though it probably didn't come as a surprise.

"Tlas lately seems to have been on the outs, but he's got charisma and some smarts. If he joins the insurgents, that could be significant," the official said.

Tlas had embarked on several unsuccessful reconciliation missions between government loyalists and rebels in Rastan and the southern province of Daraa, according to a source with close ties to Damascus,

A member in the elite Republican Guard, Tlas was sidelined more than a year ago, after he was deemed unreliable.

Tlas later gave up his military uniform and opted for civilian clothing. He set up residence in Damascus, where he let his beard and hair grow long.

Tlas' father, who served as defense minister between 1972 and 2004, was in office during the 1982 Hama Massacre, which reportedly left between 20,000 and 48,000 people dead. Many opposition activists accuse the older Tlas of complicity, and have called for him to be prosecuted for war crimes.

© 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.