One of the things that came out of today's select committee hearing on spying in the UK was this claim that "up to 200" British citizens are involved in fighting in Syria. Now understandly claims like this being released by Andrew Parker head of mi5, on a day the security services are under scrutiny, should be taken in context. There's a clear motive for wanting to justify their activities by talking up a threat to the UK from Al-Qeada, but that alone shouldn't be cause to dismiss the issue.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24856553
This contains a very interesting video report on who's fighting who in which areas of Syria which is why I thought I'd add it here. Of course it's BBC so it's a bit on message, but there's some interesting information.
It would also be fun to speculate on what role mi5 has in
directing this flow of jihadi's to Syria and what interests it's serving for them to go there...
The latest news is the Syrian Army have been on the offensive around Damascus again (
here) claiming to have retaken a rebel town south of Damascus. The rebels have been reduced to conceding territory and instead launching suicide attacks in the capital, such as the two yesterday in Sweidah (
here). The rebels have been trying to concentrate in recent months on isolating Damascus, and the Army have struggled to conclusively remove the rebels camped outside the city, so this is good news that's been a long time coming for Assad.
Internationally the non-existent Syrian peace talks have still failed to materialise. The US is holding them off until the final chemical weapons inspections have been finished, which is pissing off Russia who have now
offered to host the talks themselves, presumably impatient to get it done. And Russia has also been falling out with Turkey for it's role in supporting Syrian rebels (
here) with Erdogdan laughably claiming that Turkey isn't hosting or sheltering any al-qeada affiliated rebels. There's also been protests over Turkey's decision to build a wall on the Turkish border with Kurdistan, to keep Kurd refugees out (
here). Erdogans a fool, Turkey was in a such strong position before he started meddling in Syria, now they're looking more and more isolated and their own population getting more fed up of him.
