Syria has denied that government forces used heavy weapons during a military operation that has brought widespread international condemnation.
Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi told reporters in Damascus on Sunday the violence in Tremseh was a military operation targeting armed fighters, not a massacre.
He said no heavy weapons were used in the violence Thursday.
That directly contradicts accounts by activists and the U.N., which said monitors saw the army use heavy weaponry and attack helicopters.
U.N. observers have found pools of blood in homes and spent bullets, mortars and artillery shells. Dozens of people have already been buried in a mass grave.