* Most high profile defection from Assad's government
* Assad appoints caretaker prime minister
AMMAN, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab
has defected to Jordan, a Jordanian official source said on
Monday, prompting Syria to announce he had been sacked and
replaced by a caretaker premier.
"Hijab is in Jordan with his family," said the source, who
did not want to be further identified.
Hijab's defection was one of the most high profile
desertions from President Bashar al-Assad's political and
military circles. On Sunday, al Arabiya television reported a
senior Syrian intelligence officer had also defected to Jordan.
Hijab, a Sunni Muslim from Syria's Sunni province of Deir
al-Zor, was also a ruling Baath Party apparatchik.
State television said Omar Ghalawanji, who was a deputy
prime minister as well as minister for local administration,
would lead a temporary caretaker government.
Assad had appointed Hijab, a former agriculture minister, as
prime minister in June following a parliamentary election which
came after more than a year of violent protests against Assad's
rule.