Human rights organizations and Syrian antigovernment rebels say Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab has fled the country to join in the opposition against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Arabic news network Al Jazeera quoted a Jordanian government official as saying that Hijab crossed the border to Jordan with some of his family on Sunday night, local time.

A spokesman for Syrian antigovernment rebels also confirmed the defection of the prime minister and three other ministers who were not identified.

The Syrian National Council, an Istanbul-based coalition of Syrian opposition groups, said the prime minister, two ministers and three high-ranking military officials escaped to Jordan.