Syria Special: A Massacre in Tremseh --- What We Know So Far

Rula Amin, of Al Jazeera English, reports on the latest news from Tremseh.

See also Thursday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: An Ambassador Defects

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NOTE - This Post Has Been Updated. In order to keep the original narrative clean, I will add any further details I collect today at the bottom of this article, and not at the top. I will timestamp the updates. Check back often.

Everyone is talking about a massacre, a killing of epic proportions, in a place called Tremseh (map), a roadside village 15-16 miles northwest of Hama. The range of deaths varies greatly, but there are many reports that between 100 and 220 people were killed in the village, a village of only around 6,000 residents.

Let's recap what we know for sure.

For starters, this massacre did not come fully unanticipated. Early on Thursday morning, EA received reports, and posted videos, that a series of towns, Kornaz, Jalama, and Tremseh (from north to south). What was curious about these reports was both the voracity of the attacks on these towns and their remote location. Previous to this, a large amount of violence has occurred on the road that runs from Kafr Zita to Khan Sheikhoun, or further northwest in Qa'allat al Madiq. I did not know where Tremseh or Jalama were before I made those early reports. The reports, all from different sources, that three villages were heavily attacked on the same road, suggested to us that a fairly major military operation was occurring along that route. It was also interesting that so many buildings in all three villages were reportedly on fire, suggesting that there may have been similar shells used against all three areas.

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Syria 1st-Hand Video: Inside the Besieged City of Zabadani

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EA sources provide English subtitles for an interview with soldiers from the Free Syrian Army stationed in the embattled city of Zabadani, 20 miles northwest of Damascus.

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Syria Special: Zabadani - The First Liberated City?

Tanks burning in a field in Madaya, near Zabadani, after being destroyed by soldiers from the Free Syrian Army

See Also, Tuesday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The State of the Uprising, Continued

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UPDATE: Shelling has resumed in the city of Zabadani for a 6th day, as the cease-fire has apparently broken. Please see today's live coverage for the latest details.

The broken cease-fire, however, does not erase the significance of this event. The Free Syrian Army did win a military victory, if only for a day. Even more evidence is surfacing that testifies to that fact.

This video reportedly shows a burned-out hull of a tank, allegedly destroyed by the FSA yesterday:

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Syria Special: Should We Treat Calls for a No-Fly Zone Seriously? (Zenko)

See also Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A New Dialogue?

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http://lat.ms/vZSb3p

Micah Zenko, writing for The Atlantic, explores the recent calls of protesters in the streets of Syri, for a "No-Fly Zone" and an international intervention, perhaps similar to the UN resolution and the NATO mission in Libya. Zenko, considering whether or not a no-fly zone would help the protesters, doubts that such a mission is in the international playbook. The most interesting assessment --- with which we agree --- is that there is little to no evidence that the Syrian military is using air power to attack protesters.

However, the one point that Zenko does not make is that the perception of the NATO intervention in Libya has stretched the meaning of the phrase "no-fly zone" for many in the Middle East. In Libya, only the first few days or weeks of the NATO mission concentrated on Qaddadi's air power. The rest of the mission focused on hammering Qaddafi's tanks, artillery, and rocket batteries. While Syria's military may not be relying heavily on its air force, Assad's loyalists have been patrolling, and shelling, the streets of Syria with heavily armored equipment. Perhaps, to the Syrian protesters on the ground who don't speak English as their first language, a "no-fly zone" actually mean a "blow up Assad's tanks" zone?

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Syria Video Essay: The Military Assault on Homs

Homs is a city of 1.2 million people, larger than Washington DC and Boston combined. For weeks, it has been the target of a large scale military campaign. Syrian soldiers have defected, and have been hiding, and fighting, in the suburbs and rural pieces of Homs, but now, according to many eyewitness reports, and the claims of the videos below, it seems that the Syrian military, loyal to President Bashar al Assad, is targeting the entire city, with minimal discrimination and maximum malice. Communication has largely been cut, but activists are already reporting that at least 114 civilians have been killed and 2100 arrested this month alone in Homs.

These are the scenes of the shelling, and the aftermath, of the assault on Homs on Friday, October 21, 2011:

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The Shelling

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Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: 360 Degrees of Homs on Fire

The Bab Amr District of Homs, Syria, is targeted by heavy machine guns, tank shells, and anti-personnel shells that explode overhead See Also, Syria Video Essay: The Military Assault on Homs

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1933 GMT: James Miller posts a video essay evaluating the assault by the Syrian military on the city of Homs and its aftermath.

1921 GMT: EA's source in Bahrain writes this report of what happened today:

Just came back from my last round in Bahrain. On my way out I saw groups of protesters (men and women) marching in Sitra, 7 villages, police vehicles chasing some of them. The roads looked like a war zone, sounds of horns honking the famous tune, "Tn.Tn.Ttn," AKA "down down Hamad" could be heard all around from protesters who were in the streets or up the roofs of the houses.

After managing to find a way out, I took the highway leading to the Saudi causeway. Police jeeps and traffic officers where all parking on both sides of the highway & at some checkpoints in the entrances to the villages. I noticed that the turn leading to Budayeh road (north of Bahrain) was open so I took it, and tried to get inside some of the villages there, like Karanah or Janosan, but it was no use. They were either blocked by police or by barriers that had been placed by protesters. So I had to go back from where I came.

I went back and took another road leading to east the of Bahrain. On my way I saw a group of protesters blocking the other lane of the highway near Athari village (police jeeps were just about 300m away!!). They used bricks, wood plats and 1 of them was pouring on the ground some kind of liquid -I think it was used car oil- they were fast and ran away immediately once they completed!

So I just contined on my way. I saw police SUVs heading toward the blocked road. I reached Juffair village, and I noticed the remainings of the roadblock that was done early this morning. There was a police SUV parked next to the scene, seems it was there to prevent protesters from doing it again, I continued until I reached Seef area (the place where protesters were determined to reach and gather). It was full, but with police thugs, not with protesters.

It's the last day of the weekend, people usually go out, malls are suppose to be full, but two main malls, Bahrain mall & Dana mall, were closed, and the other 2 big ones, Seef & City Center, the parking lots were almost empty!

That's when I decided to get back home, it's true that we couldn't reach the center point which we planned to gather in, but for sure and thanks to the huge security presence in all around Bahrain roads I can say with certainty that the Bahrain revolution is still alive and people are defiantly not going to give up. Government fears us, it fears our existence and fears our truthful movement for freedom and dignity.

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Expect More Funeral Protests

See also Saturday's Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Won't Give Up, Won't Back Down

1520 GMT: Yesterday we received a picture from an activist showing a man, reportedly in Sitra, Bahrain, standing in front of a police convoy at protests. Frankly, I don't like pictures, as they are hard to verify, but today we have received and EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of the same scene, and more. Protesters take to the streets, but tear gas, and what appears to be rubber bullets (though it's possible that live ammunition was also used) is fired towards the protesters. Amidst the smoke an chaos, the police convoy can be seen, and the man with no shirt stands in front of it.

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Won't Give Up, Won't Back Down

1911 GMT: Al Jazeera offers their latest summary of the events in Syria, which echos much of our own coverage:

1907 GMT: This video was reportedly taken today in Homs, where State Run SANA TV claims 1 soldier was killed. In the video, we see plain-clothed Shabiha ("ghosts", paramilitary) walking along with Syrian military and firing at unseen targets. None of the Syrian security forces seem too nervous, as if their targets are unarmed. I repeat a question posed by an activist earlier, do these people look like they are being shot at?

1842 GMT: Multiple sources and activists are reporting that Joabr, Damascus, has been sealed off by security forces.

1839 GMT: A video claiming to show a large protest today in Hama:

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Syria Video Special: This is What Assad Calls "Withdrawing"

Even as the Syrian government, and the Syrian State Television channel SANA, were claiming that the soldiers and tanks were pulling out of Lattakia and Deir Ez Zor, we started to receive video of tanks repositioning to other locations, most notably Homs. Now, there are reports that most of the troops and tanks have not left Deir Ez Zor or Lattakia.

Is this what Assad calls "withdrawal?"

See Also, Syria, Libya (and Beyond) Liveblog: Pulling Out of Deir Ez Zor?

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Once again, every night since the start of Ramadan, protests are reported in almost every area of Syria:

Jobar, Damascus:

Al Korah, Deir Ez Zor:

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) Liveblog: Pulling Out of Deir Ez Zor?

See Also, Syria Video Special: This is What Assad Calls "Withdrawing"

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2100 GMT: It is claimed that 10 Turkish F-16s have bombed several PKK camps in northern Iraq. However, no official confirmation has come from Ankara yet. 

1929 GMT: In our separate video entry, we've posted a clip claiming to show Syrian soldiers breaking in and looting a store in Hama.

1900 GMT: The number of killed Turkish soldiers has risen to 12. Meanwhile, the so-called "second man" of PKK, claimed to have been captured by Iranian forces, announced that PM Erdogan's "no tolerance" speech is nothing short of a declaration of war! He went further and threatened Ankara:

PM shall know that we have not used even five percent of our forces. We are waging a controlled defensive war now. If we take an official decision of war and order accordingly, then Ankara will be upside down. 

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