Beleaguered Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's grip on power has suffered a fresh blow after two of his most senior diplomats defected to Qatar.
Abdelatif al-Dabbagh, ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Lamia al-Hariri ambassador to Cyprus, who are husband and wife, are the second and third senior diplomats to defect since the uprising against the president began 16 months ago.
"The ambassador is now in Qatar," SNC spokesman Mohammad Sarmini said referring to al-Dabbagh.
A military attache at the Syrian embassy in Oman told Al Jazeera television he had also defected.
"After the killing and bombardment and destruction of our people in Syria increased, and the massacres took place, this... pushed me to defect from this regime," Mohammad Tahseen al-Faqir said.
Hariri, a Sunni Muslim from the southern province of Deraa, the birthplace of the uprising, is the niece of Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa, whose role is ceremonial in a power structure dominated by Assad's Alawite minority sect.
Nawaf al-Fares, Syria's ambassador to Iraq, who is a Sunni tribal figure from eastern Syria, defected to Qatar through Jordan two weeks ago, according to diplomatic sources.