Syrian President Bashar al-Assad faced mounting pressure yesterday after a senior diplomat defected and Western powers drew up a 10-day ultimatum for Damascus even as Russia ruled out sanctions.

Syria’s ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, announced he was joining a small but growing list of officials who have defected to the opposition as the regime battles a nearly 16-month-old uprising.

“I call on all free and worthy people in Syria, particularly in the military, to immediately rejoin the ranks of the revolution,” Mr Fares said in a message aired on Al-Jazeera satellite channel.

The defector has since taken refuge in Qatar, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said yesterday.

Mr Fares, who served as provincial governor around Syria and held senior security and Baath party posts, hails from a prominent Sunni tribe from eastern Syria.

The foreign ministry in Damascus said Mr Fares had been “discharged” after having made statements to the media “in contradiction with his duty, which consists of defending his country’s position.” He would be “legally prosecuted.”

Meanwhile in the latest clashes, Syrian troops shelled and then stormed the village of Treimsa in the central province of Hama, monitors and activists said yesterday, as at least 45 people were killed across the strife-torn country.

“Regime forces pounded Treimsa... using tanks and helicopters,” said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding that soldiers later stormed the besieged village.

The Observatory said eight civilians and one Free Syrian Army rebel were killed in Hama. The Syrian Revolutionary General Commission reported that one of the Treimsa victims was a doctor shot dead while trying to help the wounded.

“The village school was totally destroyed,” a Hama-based activist calling himself Abu Ghazi told AFP via Skype.