Video: Head of Syria's military police announces his defection Wearing a camouflage uniform with red officer insignia on the shoulder, General Abdelaziz Jassim al-Shalal, head of the military police said he had "defected because of the deviation of the army from its primary duty of protecting the country and its transformation into gangs of killing and destruction" in a video published on YouTube. A Syrian security source confirmed the defection but played down the significance of the high-level defection saying the officer he was due to retire in a month anyway. There are reports that the general has now fled to Turkey. More than 45,000 people have been killed in Syria since the outbreak in March 2011 of an anti-regime revolt that became a bloody insurgency after a brutal crackdown on dissent.