A top Syrian general responsible for preventing military defections has himself defected to Syria’s opposition. Major General Abdul al-Shallal, the head of Syria’s military police, crossed into neighboring Turkey in a daring break with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In a statement to the news network Al Arabiya, Shallal accused the Syrian military of turning on the people of Syria.

Maj. Gen. Abdul al-Shallal: “I am Major General Abdul Aziz Jassem al-Shallal, chief of the military police in Syria. I declare my defection from the regime’s army because of its deviation of its fundamental mission to protect the nation and its transformation into gangs of killing and destruction.”

Shallal’s departure marks a key setback for the Assad regime, as he was tasked with preventing defectors and with overseeing the imprisonment of civilian dissidents.