Syria's prime minister became the highest-profile official to leave the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad on Monday.
Opposition leaders said
Riyad Hijab had defected, while
Syrian state television said al-Assad
dismissed Hijab from his post Monday.
There were conflicting reports about the whereabouts of Hijab, who was appointed prime minister in June.
A Syrian opposition
official, Muhammad el-Etri, told CNN that Hijab had defected, was "in a
country neighboring Syria" and would be heading to Qatar "sometime
soon."
"I announce today my
defection from the killing and terrorist regime and I announce that I
have joined the ranks of the freedom and dignity revolution. I announce
that I am from today a soldier in this blessed revolution," Hijab said
in a written statement read by el-Etri on Al Jazeera on Monday.
Government officials announced Hijab's sacking after officials discovered he had left Syria, el-Etri said.
George Sabra, a spokesman
for the opposition Syrian National Council, said Hijab fled Syria
overnight and arrived with his family in Jordan.
Jordanian government
spokesman Samih Maaytah said Hijab had not entered the country's
territories, according to state television. But a senior Jordanian
official told CNN that Hijab had defected to Jordan and was with his
family.
In July, one of Syria's
most senior diplomats -- Nawaf al-Fares -- defected, publicly embraced
his country's uprising and called for a foreign military intervention.
Al-Fares was Syria's ambassador to Iraq.
Manaf Tlas, a Sunni
general in Syria's elite Republican Guards, also defected last month.
Tlas is the son of a former defense minister and a cousin of a first
lieutenant in al-Assad's army.
Hijab, just like
al-Fares and Tlas, is a Sunni who served in a power structure dominated
by the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiism.
Hijab became prime
minister in late June after the parliamentary elections and was tasked
with creating a new Cabinet for al-Assad's regime.
Opposition leaders haled the news of Hijab's defection.
"We consider the
defection to be what is morally right and what is called for at this
historic time," said Abdulbaset Sieda, head of the Syrian National
Council. "This is a killer and criminal regime, and at this historic
moment, there should be no further hesitation. It is imperative to stand
by the people of Syria now."
Meanwhile, fighting raged in northern Aleppo, Syria's most populous city.
Snipers fired from the roofs of buildings and artillery fire rang out in the besieged neighborhood of Salaheddin.
CNN's Ben Wedeman said
drivers had to dodge piles of rubble in the streets. Residents
evacuating to safer neighborhoods left their homes with all the
belongings they could carry, he said.
An elderly man, carrying a briefcase and a bag full of jam, said he was leaving the neighborhood to move in with his daughter.
"What kind of leader does this to his own people?" the man said as he left his home.
Heavy shelling was reported in several neighborhoods in northern and central Aleppo.
Bashir Al-Hajji, a
spokesman for a Free Syrian Army brigade in Aleppo, said clashes raged
for hours at various spots near the city center, some close to the
presidential palace.
Al-Hajji says he is in
the Industrial City of Aleppo, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the
city of Aleppo, which is the commercial capital.
As rebels scrambled to fend off regime forces in Aleppo, fighting was reported in other parts of Syria.
At least 84 people were
killed in fighting across the country Monday, the opposition Local
Coordination Committees of Syria said. The deaths included 10 people
killed in fighting and the discovery of 20 bodies in Aleppo, the group
said.
CNN can not
independently confirm reports of violence, as the government has
severely restricted access to Syria by international journalists.
There were reports of a
bombing Monday inside the Syrian state-run TV building in Damascus, the
latest in a series of attacks to rock the nation's capital city as
Syrian rebels and government forces battle for control of the country.
There was no immediate
claim of responsibility for the blast, which occurred on the third floor
of the Public Center for Broadcast in Television.
"All employees of the
Public Center for Broadcast in Television are well, and we know who
stood behind this cowardly, brutal attack. There are some injuries, but
Syrian media will continue to broadcast," the Ministry of Information
said on state-run TV.
Over the weekend, United
Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the situation may get
worse in Aleppo, describing the city as "the epicenter of a vicious
battle between the Syrian government and those who wish to replace it."
Through much of the
uprising that began last year, Aleppo remained relatively free of
violence. That changed this summer with the influx of rebels into the
city.
Roughly 17,000 people
have been killed since the Syrian conflict first flared in March 2011,
when government forces began cracking down on protesters, Ban said last
month. The opposition put the toll at more than 20,000.