Syrian pilot gets asylum in Jordan • BEIRUT — A Syrian fighter pilot on a training mission flew his MiG-21 warplane to neighboring Jordan, where he was given asylum Thursday in a defection from the loyal air force that signals some of the most ironclad allegiances in Damascus could be fraying. Syria immediately denounced the pilot as a traitor.
The brazen move was a triumph for the rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad and was the first defection by an air force officer with his plane since the uprising began in March 2011.
The pilot, identified as Col. Hassan Hammadeh, removed his air force tag and knelt on the tarmac in prayer after landing at King Hussein Air Base in Mafraq, Jordan, 45 miles north of Amman, a Jordanian security official said.
Hammadeh will be allowed to stay in Jordan on “humanitarian grounds,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Syria’s state-run news agency, SANA, reported earlier that authorities had lost contact with a MiG-21 on a training mission. After the defection became clear, SANA quoted an unidentified military official as saying the pilot was “a traitor to his country.”
The Obama administration praised the pilot as “very courageous.” Pentagon spokesman George Little called the defection “the right thing” to do. The Associated Press
