BEIRUT (Reuters) - In what would be the most high-profile defection from the inner circle of the Syrian leadership, Manaf Tlas, a friend of President Bashar al-Assad and a brigadier in his Republican Guard, was reported on Wednesday to have fled to Turkey...."His defection is big news because it shows that the inner circle is disintegrating."

Tlas commanded a brigade of the Republican Guard, an elite, praetorian force commanded by Assad's feared brother Maher, one of the architects of a bloody crackdown on 16 months of dissent and rebellion in which more than 15,000 people have been killed.