Syria deputy oil minister defects DAMASCUS, Syria, March 8 (UPI) -- A deputy Syrian oil minister announced Thursday he was joining the opposition to protest the "brutal campaign of the regime." Syria has been in a popular uprising for the last year. Fighting is approaching civil war. U.N. officials have said the government of Bashar Assad is likely committing war crimes while Damascus maintains it's dealing with domestic terrorists. Syria's Deputy Oil Minister Abdo Hussameddin announced, in a video posted on YouTube, that he was defecting to join the opposition. "I am joining the revolution of the people who reject injustice and the brutal campaign of the regime," his message was translated by the BBC as saying. I tell the regime, which claims to own the country, you have nothing but the footprint of the tank driven by your barbarism to kill innocent people. The European Union in early December hit Syria's General Petroleum Corp. with new sanctions as punishment for the brutal crackdown on opponents to Assad. Syria in August was producing around 370,000 barrels of oil per day. One of the last company's working in Syria, Gulfsands Petroleum, announced in February it was halting operations in the country. There was no comment from Damascus on the defection, the highest civilian defection since the uprising began.