Update on Syria.

Over the weekend the Syrian army entered the town of Jisr al-Shughour and today (13/6/11) they claim to be in complete control of the town. In the process it is claimed that 60 insurgents were killed and 200 arrested. If you believe Syrian claims about the type of opposition they faced then far from being a bloodbath this has actually quite a reasonable military operation.

Since mid-February the Syrian government have been reporting that Islamic extremists have been bringing in weapons and other equipment into Syria from Iraq and it is these insurgents that have been responsible for the unrest. This version of events is actually very believable. Although I'm no expert there are broadly four mains sects within Islam; Salafists, Shias, Sunnis and Alawites. The Salafists are the most extreme of the groups believing that there is no political or religions ideology other then Islam and Islam must be practiced in the way it was during the time of the Prophet. However since the time of the Prophet the majority of Muslims have split into two main groups, the Sunnis and the Shias. These two groups relate to each other much like Catholics and Protestants do in Christianity in the sense that while they disagree and fight with each other they accept that they are both part of the same religion. The most recent sect to emerge were the Alawites who have a very mystical almost hippyish interpretation of Islam. Due to this very liberal interpretation of Islam neither the Sunnis and Shia recognise Alawites as true Muslims and the Salafists especially hate them.

The Assad family and most of Syria's ruling class are Alawites. Therefore Iraqi Salafists, who are at a bit of a loose end at the moment, wouldn't need much encouragement to cross the border into Syria in order to overthrow the Alawites in the hope of turning Syria into a more extreme Islamic state.

Elsewhere the author of the infamous "A Gay Girl in Damascus" blog has been unmasked. If you're not familiar with this English language blog it has been giving a highly personal account of what it is like to be a lesbian in Syria and how gay people are so oppressed by Assads government. Since the start of the unrest it has also played a central role in stirring up protests and bringing "news" of the government crackdown to the western world. Today (13/6/11) it has been the revealed that the blogs author is a married man in his forties based in Edinburgh, UK. So it's nice to known that the Brits still see the gay rights mob as easy marks.