Okay, for discussion purposes (CE, anyone else) let's look at the Syrian government version of the Tremseh situation. They say the militants, about 250-300, had entered the city some time before the events (about 20 days), set up an explosives manufacturing plant, bringing numerous Libyans, a Turkish officer, plenty machine guns, grenades, and RPGs, no tanks mentioned.
Seven captives make their claims, published by SANA. They're under captivity, but show no obvious signs of torture (some types you can't see, of course)
Four here, July 14
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...p://www.sana.sy/eng/337/2012/07/14/431292.htm
More details on the overall rebel operation, including that the attack was first to impose a "state of strike," just shut the city down.
Three more, July 15
http://www.sana.sy/eng/337/2012/07/15/431458.htm
The latter has the story I alluded to already regarding an olive grove. I'm not certain this is supposed to be part of the events of the 12th or some previous event during the activists' stay in al-Tremseh. So I'll start with it:
For his part, terrorist Zaher al-Tayeh said that he took part in the abduction of a man from al-Safsafiye village along with two others, hijacking the man's car and then interrogating him in an olive field before slitting his throat with a knife.
Al-Tayeh also confessed to abducting two others; one from al-Safsafiye and the other from the village of Khneizir, saying that they demanded a ransom of SYP 400,000 for the first one and 200,000 for the second, but their demands weren't met so one of the abductors, a man killed Hussein Dabbas, slit the victims' throats as al-Tayeh watched.
Actually, it seems perhaps unconnected to the day's events. His role in that remains unclear.
Two terrorists from the town of al-Treimseh in Hama countryside confessed to taking part in a series of murders and acts of terrorism before the army entered the town, while a third terrorist admitted to participating in abducting citizens to demand ransom and killing them afterwards.
The two locals are brothers, who confirm a sort of odd story of being pressed into joining the rebel terrorists, a group led by Saleh al-Saba'awi, offering little of value as they witnessed others entering homes and killing people on 'revenge' missions.
Al-Mahmoud said that he and his brother accompanied al-Saba'awi and six other men attacked two houses, with him breaking one of the houses' doors and shooting at the roof, noting that he stayed outside with his brother upon al-Saba'awi's orders while the rest entered the house and shot everyone inside, saying that he only saw a man and a woman but that there were more people inside.
He went on to say that they broke into the second house, with him staying outside like the first time and firing at the house, and the rest of the group entered the house and killed anyone inside.
Ahmad confirmed all that, adding that they were told the victims were military men, "when in truth there were only civilian men and women who were shot dead by the terrorists."
I can see how there are possible problems with all that, but I can also see how it could be true.
I think another source give further details on how the brothers' recruitment happened, but it doesn't seem to be in this piece.
