Syria crisis: What happened in Tremseh? 2.17pm: The violence in Syria shows no sign of ebbing. The LCC network of opposition activists has posted a report on their Facebook site saying that a village near Tremseh is currently being besieged by tanks "from four directions." It adds: "Fears of a new massacre similar to Treimseh massacre." Meanwhile, in Damascus, several people were wounded earlier today when an explosion hit a bus carrying security forces. Reuters reports: Residents said they heard a powerful blast, followed by the sirens of ambulances rushing toward Damascus's southern ring road near the neighbourhood of Midan. Some activists said more than one member of the security forces was killed in the attack, but others said there were no dead, only wounded. They said the blast appeared to have been caused by an improvised explosive device that had been stuck onto the bus. 1.28pm: A Spanish photojournalist who visited Tremseh on Saturday said he was in no doubt the troops had used heavy weaponry in an attack on the town. Daniel Leal Olivas, who had been in Syria for three weeks, told Al Jazeera he had seen tank tracks, mortar shells and dozens of burned houses in Tremseh. Residents had told him the shabiha had used "all the power they had" to attack the town. As we got there, we found obvious proof of heavy weapons. All the tank tracks were in the ground, very fresh. Everyone was in the town very nervous, trying to show us what happened in the town. There was heavy marks of shelling- not only tanks, mortars too. We saw there...were heavy weapons used in that town against the civil population. Asked if the weaponry could not have been used- as the government claims- by opposition fighters, Leal Olivas said he thought that was very unlikely. From what he had seen of the rebels during his time in Syria, he said, none of them "have the amount of weapons we saw in Tremseh." We saw all the tracks and everyone was holding the shells of the tanks, and you can see in the walls in the ministry of the town, [it was] very easy to identify there were tanks there. Everyone was [saying] 'tanks came here; not only tanks, many soldiers came here'. [It was] very obvious to see. 1.10pm: An update from AP on the Red Cross's change in stance on Syria. "We are now talking about a non-international armed conflict in the country," ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan said. Previously, the ICRC had restricted its assessment of the scope of the conflict to the hotspots of Idlib, Homs and Hama, but Hassan said the organization had determined the violence has spread beyond those areas. "Hostilities have spread to other areas of the country," Hassan told The Associated Press. International humanitarian law applies to all areas where hostilities are taking place. 12.31pm: The International Committee of the Red Cross says it now considers the conflict in Syria a civil war, meaning international humanitarian law applies throughout the country, reports AP. The Geneva-based group's assessment is an important reference that helps parties in a conflict determine how much and what type of force they can or cannot use. ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan said Sunday that the humanitarian law now applies wherever hostilities are taking place in Syria, where fighting has spread beyond the hotspots of Idlib, Homs and Hama. International humanitarian law grants parties to a conflict the right to use appropriate force to achieve their aims. But attacks on civilians and abuse or killing of detainees can constitute war crimes. 12.12pm: Dutch journalist Sander van Hoorn, who visited Tremseh yesterday, has this to say about the Syrian government's explanation this morning. Earlier, van Hoorn tweeted that, while he had reason to believe there had been shelling and many deaths, he could not support the idea there had been a massacre like the one that took place in Houla earlier this year. 12.06pm: UN observers are expected to return to Tremseh today, AP reports, bringing hope they may be able to shed new light on the events of Thursday night. The wire's latest dispatch has this take on the UN's statement last night. Some of the emerging details suggested that, rather than the outright shelling of civilians that the opposition has depicted, the violence in Tremseh may have been a lopsided fight between the army pursuing the opposition and activists and locals trying to defend the village. Nearly all of the dead are men, including dozens of armed rebels. The U.N. observers said the assault appeared to target specific homes of army defectors or opposition figures. Running tolls ranged from around 100 to 152, including dozens of bodies buried in neighboring villages or burned beyond recognition. The activists expected the number to rise since hundreds of residents remain unaccounted for, and locals believe bodies remained in nearby fields or were dumped into the Orontes River. 11.50am: What actually happened in Tremseh remains "murky," the New York Times says, adding that evidence available suggests events "more closely followed the Syrian government account" than that of opposition activists. The Syrian government has today dismissed the reports of a massacre, rejecting special envoy Kofi Annan's claims that heavy weapons and helicopters were used in clashes. AP reports: Jihad Makdissi, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said security forces killed 37 fighters and two civilians in a campaign against the town, from which the government said rebels were launching attacks on other areas. Government forces did not use planes, or helicopters, or tanks or artillery. The heaviest weapon used was an RPG (rocket propelled grenade)," Makdissi t o ld reporters at a news conference in Damascus. Yesterday we received a letter from Mr. Kofi Annan addressed to the Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem. Justifying its belief that the government's version of events looks likely to be the more truthful, the New York Times details the new claims of the UN, as well as uncertainty over the death toll. It concludes: In previous massacres, however, like the one in Houla in late May, there was the immediate synchronization between the long lists of civilian names, the gruesome videos of dead women and children, and corroboration by United Nations observers who faulted the Syrian Army for using tank shells and other heavy weaponry against a civilian area. That is missing in the case of Tremseh. 11.36am: The Guardian's Martin Chulov has written a wrap-up of the situation as it currently stands here. The main points are as follows: Late last night, the UN monitoring mission released a statement saying that the military attack on Tremseh appeared to have mainly targeted guerilla forces and their supporters. The attack on Tremseh appeared targeted at specific groups and houses, mainly of army defectors and activists. Of 103 fatalities recorded by opposition sources, all are male. Chulov says this is "a fact that adds weight to the view that fighting-aged males were at least partly targeted during the assault." However Chulov has himself spoken to local residents who insist they were all targets of a bombardment which involved mortars, artillery and helicopters. They claim that close to 150 people from the town are either dead or missing. In his report for the Observer today, Chulov quotes one resident of Tremseh as saying: The bombardment started at 5.30am and ended at 2pm. 11.26am: Good morning. There is uncertainty today over what precisely happened in the small Syrian town of Tremseh on Thursday night. While reports from locals and opposition activists indicate that more than 150 died during a brutal massacre by regime thugs, or shabiha, UN observers on the ground have now said evidence they have seen points towards a clash between the heavily-armed army of Bashar al-Assad and local opposition fighters. There is also apparent uncertainty over the death toll. Claims and counter-claims, rumour and speculation abound. We'll be updating this blog throughout the day as more information emerges.