In media coverage of the current situation in Homs province, there is much focus on the issue of relations between the Sunni and Alawite communities. The smaller Twelver Shi'a community of the province has received less attention. While there is certainly not a 'genocide' against Twelver Shi'a in the province (contrary to some of the more sensationalist rhetoric about minorities in Syria), there are some disturbing trends similar to those seen with regards to the Alawite community in Syria. The following interview was conducted recently with a resident of the Twelver Shi'a village of Tel Aghar in Homs province.

[Click here to continue reading]:

https://www.aymennaltamimi.com/p/the-twelver-shia-of-homs-interview

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In this post I present my full translated transcript of the press conference that the Syria's Interior Ministry held on 24 June regarding the bombing of the Mar Elias church in Damascus, which as of this date has not been claimed by the Islamic State but rather by a group called Saraya Ansar al-Sunna, which is either a pro-Islamic State group currently operating independently or a front for Islamic State. The reason I present the transcript of this conference in full is that some of the media summaries of the conference do not present a wholly accurate picture of what was said. Further, a review of the full transcript shows that some of the remarks made by the Interior Ministry's spokesman (Nur al-Din al-Baba) deserve closer scrutiny. To wit:

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I have two new research papers published by the Centre for Justice and Accountability as part of the centre's research project on the Islamic State (IS) and prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the group:

(i) One paper, entitled "Membership of IS and Other Forms of Involvement," develops a typology of Islamic State membership and degrees of involvement in the organisation during the era of the group's territorial caliphate in Iraq and Syria. A distinction is made between formal members ('brothers'), 'supporters' ('munasirun') and 'employees.' The paper also discusses the issue of how, if at all, members could leave the organisation.

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In an earlier post I noted the claim of responsibility for the Damascus church bombing issued by a group calling itself Saraya Ansar al-Sunna. For its part, the Syrian Interior Ministry is insisting that a cell 'officially' affiliated with Islamic State is responsible for the bombing, whereas Saraya Ansar al-Sunna is supposedly a made-up organisation and has no link to the attack (I will provide more details of the press-conference the ministry held regarding the incident and subsequent arrests of the cell's members in another post).

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When a suicide bombing targeted the Mar Elias church in the Damascus area two days ago, it was my immediate suspicion that the attack was the work of the Islamic State (IS), since the group considers it acceptable to target any Christians who do not convert to Islam or agree to a dhimmi pact with the group (i.e. a pact where they have to pay 'jizya'- a poll tax- and abide by various restrictions).

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