7 August 2012 Last updated at 06:56 ET

Syria crisis: Tracking the Assad defectors

Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab is the latest significant figure to defect from Bashar al-Assad's embattled regime.

Mr Hijab's departure follows the defection of a number of diplomatic staff, notably Syria's ambassador to Iraq, and other military figures.

Four top-level military advisers were also killed in a bomb attack on the National Security Headquarters in Damascus in July. We examine the effects these defections and deaths may have on President Assad.

Defected
Name	Position	Importance	Effect on Assad?
Brig Gen Manaf Tlass	Commander in the elite Republican Guard	The son of Syria's longest serving defence minister, Mustafa Tlas, he attended military training with President Assad. He and his wife were prominent figures in the Damascus social scene. A Sunni Muslim, whereas most of Syria's leaders are Alawite.	Manaf Tlass was a close friend of President Assad, so his defection will have been keenly felt in Damascus.
Riad Hijab	Prime Minister	The most significant political desertion from the government. He was considered a staunch Assad loyalist and was a key member of the Baath party. Came from the eastern city of Deir al-Zour and was made agriculture minister shortly after the uprising began.	Although his was a mainly symbolic role, the flight of President Assad's most prominent cabinet minister was evidence, according to the opposition, of the regime "disintegrating".
Nawaf Fares	Syrian ambassador to Iraq	Given the task of repairing relations with Baghdad in 2008, he was a member of Syria's Sunni Muslim elite. He had been prominent in the ruling Baath party and the security services and had served as governor of several provinces. Chief of the Uqaydat tribe close to Syria's eastern border with Iraq.	His defection in July was seen as a potential tipping point, coming days after Brig Gen Tlass's decision to abandon the regime.
Lamia al-Hariri and husband Abdelatif al-Dabbagh	Syrian ambassadors to Cyprus and UAE	The couple reportedly fled to Qatar in late July 2012	They defected at the same time as Nawaf Fares and created a sense that diplomats were abandoning President Assad
Khaled al-Ayoubi	Syria's Charge d'Affaires in the UK	A relatively junior diplomat whose predecessor was expelled from London in May 2012, he condemned the Syrian government's "violent and oppressive acts".	Not a high-ranking diplomat, but his departure would have been difficult for the president whose wife is London-born and he himself is a London-trained eye doctor.
Col Riyad al-Asaad	Air force colonel, now commander of the Free Syrian Army, made up of army deserters	Claims to have 40,000 men under his command. Thirty generals are already said to have fled Syria across the border with Turkey.
Ikhlas Badawi	Aleppo MP defected in July 2012 to Turkey	A mother of six, she said she was defecting in protest at the "violence against the people" as the Syrian army prepared to attack rebel-held areas of Aleppo.
Gen Muhammed Ahmed Faris	Syria's first man in space. A military aviator who joined a Soviet crew on the Mir space station in 1987.	Largely symbolic, defected in August 2012

Dead
Name	Position	Importance	Effect on Assad?
Gen Assef Shawkat	Deputy defence minister	The president's brother-in-law, married to Bashar al-Assad's sister Bushra, was among four top-ranking security officials killed by an 18 July bomb at the headquarters of the National Security Bureau in Damascus. He was replaced as head of military intelligence in 2010. Reputedly among the most notorious security figures in the Assad elite.	He was believed to have been close to Bashar al-Assad and his death would have been a personal blow.
Hisham Ikhtiar	National security chief	Head of the National Security Bureau, Gen Ikhtiar co-ordinated the work of all Syria's intelligence agencies. Reportedly put in charge of quelling the response to pro-democracy protests in Deraa.	His death was a major prize for the rebels.
Gen Hassan Turkomani	Head of Assad crisis management office	A former defence minister and assistant to the vice president, he was a career soldier who was made general in the 1980s and later military chief of staff.	In charge of the president's response to the uprising, his death would have been a considerable loss
Gen Daoud Rajiha	Promoted to general in 2005, he was chief of staff of the armed forces for seven years.