Syria: Prime minister Riad Hijab sacked; Opposition source tells CBS News he defected

Riad Hijab, Syrian Prime Minister, seen in a Nov. 24, 2008 file photo. / Getty

Updated at 7:16 a.m. Eastern.

(CBS/AP) - Syria's government said on Monday that Prime Minister Riad Hijab had been fired -- but a spokesman for the premiere and opposition members said he had actually become the latest official to defect from President Bashar Assad's autocratic regime.

State-controlled Syrian TV made the announcement Monday of Hijab's dismissal from the post, which he assumed just two months ago, without giving any further detail.

A reliable opposition source tells CBS News' Khaled Wassef that Hijab and his family have safely left Syrian territory.

Ahmad Kassim, a senior official with the Free Syrian Army, told the Associated Press that Hijab defected to Jordan along with three other ministers. The other ministers' identities were not immediately known.

A spokesman for the Jordanian Prime Minister said on Jordanian TV that Hijab had not yet entered the country.

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If confirmed, Hijab's would be only the latest in a series of defections of senior political and military defections from Syria. CBS News correspondent Holly Williams reports that as many as 20 Syrian generals are believed to have abandoned the regime already, with most of them believed to have joined the Free Syrian Army.

According to the Al Jazeera television network, the rebel Free Syrian Army secured the exit of Hijab and his family from Syria into neighboring Jordan. Al Jazeera quoted a spokesperson for Hijab as saying the defected premiere will "join the ranks" of the Syrian opposition.

Shortly before the announcement about Hijab, a bomb ripped through the third floor of the state TV building in Damascus, shattering several offices and wounding at least three employees, Syrian TV said.

The explosion was the latest in the Syrian capital, which has seen a string of suicide attacks and other bombings in the past few months as the country's civil war has escalated and the rebels grow bolder in their tactics. The TV building, which also houses state-run radio, is located at the Umawiyyeen roundabout in central Damascus.

After Monday's blast, the TV remained on air despite what was another severe breach of a state institution and a heavily guarded area in the Syrian capital. A bomb that exploded in the state security headquarters in Damascus on July 18 killed four of Syria's top security leaders.

A pro-government private Syrian TV station, Al-Ikhbariya, broadcast images of the damage at the state TV building. The footage showed destroyed walls, overturned desks, blown-out cabinet doors, broken glass and dangling electricity cables. A few TV workers were shown tending to a wounded colleague.

Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said the bomb blast caused heavy material damage and light injuries among the employees.

"Syrian TV was not disrupted, and we will keep up our transmission no matter how some powers do their best to silence us," Zoubi told CBS News' George Baghdadi.

He blamed Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Israel for the attack. Syrian authorities accuse the Gulf countries and Israel of supporting the rebels fighting against President Bashar Assad's troops and fueling the insurgency in Syria.

Syria's rebels have grown increasingly confident in recent months. In July, the rebels and Syrian regime forces fought intense battles for a week in Damascus in what was the opposition fighters' biggest challenge so far in the capital.

The government claimed Saturday it was now in full control of all districts in the capital, after purging one of the last rebel-held areas, but clashes have continued in some districts of Damascus.

On Saturday, gunmen snatched 48 Iranians just outside Damascus in a brazen attack. Iran said those abducted were pilgrims who were traveling on a bus taking them from the suburb of Sayeda Zeinab, about 10 miles south of Damascus, to the airport to return home when they were kidnapped.

But the Iranians' captors claimed in a video broadcast on Al-Arabiya TV station Sunday that one of the captives was an officer of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and that the 48 were on a "reconnaissance mission" in the capital.

Mainly Shiite Iran is a close ally of the beleaguered Syrian government, which is dominated by the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

[melpol12]

Providing better equipped prayer halls for the poor will quiet the rebellion. Showers, meeting halls, gyms, and free snacks are needed in Mosques to raise the standard of living for the neglected. Each Imam must be provided with a large staff of spiritual counselors to sooth the minds of angry Wahhabi, Salafi-jihad, and Mujahedin. The more fortunate Alawite and Christians must share their wealth; it will help Allah shine his blessings on all Syrians.

[Nikos_Retsos]

A report by the Associate Press (AP) claims that 3 other Syrian cabinet ministers defected to Jordan with Prime Minister Riad Hijab,
but they are not allowed to make any public statements by the Jordanian government.

If that is true, the Assad's government seems to have started to fall apart - like a pile of stones, whose top stones are the first to crumble down when the earth is shaking!
Nikos Retsos, retired professor

[lillyhorton]

I believe the people of Syria were having issues with government prior to Bashar taking over in 2000. He has tried to change things but it just hasn't been enough so in order to maintain control of the country they had to censor internet and creat gathering rules.

I Have heard of these gathering rules in the US which are in place by local communities. The US is censored as well. People outside the country have said our media isn't explaining the whole story. We have been sheltered from the truth. We have been brainwashed to hold discriminate thoughts about others around the globe.

Basher can't get the land that Isreal and Turkey have long accomodated back. It belongs to Syria but Syria just isn't big enough to fight US backed Isreal or Turkey. Syria is the perfect location for a US opperated military for a middle east take over so I bet we are supporting the uprise against Basher Assad Who isn't a dictator or murderer. Those citizens need to realize what is happening and there lives will change for what they thought was better but really they will become slaves like the citizens of the US. Work to pay the government and hope there is left over to live. Autocratic regime? Sounds like the US government.

[Gerolddd]

WHo has killed all them 20k folks in Syria. The devil i guess.
Yes i am a slave to the U.S. government. As i walk around my 2K ac. farm i wonder how my family will pay all the taxes each year on it. Opps i forget the 2 mil. i have made in the past year. Guess that will take care of the 4k in taxes this year. I could go on about the freedom i have but i guess that would be rubbing it in. :=)

[lillyhorton]

Gerolddd You work for the US government. You get new farming equiptment from them. You get a new truck ever so often and a new riffle if you can justify it. You go into certain stores and tell them it's for farm use and you get a discount. Where do you think the government gets the money to provide for you? Thats right, those of us who pay taxs. Without us Gerolddd you will fail. I don't know where you live but around here crops have failed. The government has said it can't help farmers the way they used to because unemployment has decreased revenue for the government. I hope you have a good lawyer and insurance. With so many farmers in dire straits insurance costs will rise. You won't go hungry but thats just you and you are just one drop in the bucket. One speck of reality surrounded by miles of land. Go ahead and rub it in and keep telling me how you use my money to maintain your wealth.