Syrian activists belonging to a group called Ugarit News have uploaded a video on Youtube on Wednesday purporting to show Ahmed Taher Tarrad, a captain of a helicopter squadron, announcing his defection. According to Mona Mahmood, a Guardian journalist, Taher said:

According to opposition activists, a unit of about 100 people from an air defence base north of Homs defected en masse on Sunday, before the military sent in helicopters to destroy the base to prevent missiles falling into rebel hands, a On Monday, the new leader of Syria’s main opposition group, Kurdish activist Abdel Basset Sayda, has called for mass defections, declaring that the regime’s days were numbered after a series of mass killings against civilians. Similar calls were made by the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA).