'There Was Smoke Rising From The Buildings And A Horrible Smell Of Human Flesh Burning'

'There Was Smoke Rising From The Buildings And A Horrible Smell Of Human Flesh Burning': By Erika Solomon and Oliver Holmes BEIRUT, June 7 (Reuters) - Six hours after tanks and militiamen pulled out of Mazraat al-Qubeir, a Syrian farmer said he returned to find only charred bodies among the smouldering homes of his once-tranquil hamlet. "There was smoke rising from the buildings and a horrible smell of human flesh burning," said a man who told how he had watched Syrian troops and "shabbiha" gunmen attack his village as he hid in his family olive grove. "It was like a ghost town," he told Reuters by telephone, asking not to be named because he feared for his safety. Until now a bloody 15-month-old revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had barely touched Mazraat al-Qubeir, whose residents had taken little part in the uprising. On Wednesday, the conflict came to them. Army tanks surrounded and shelled the hamlet in the afternoon before rolling in, joined by pro-Assad shabbiha toughs on foot, armed with knives, guns and clubs. "After the army fired on one area, security forces and shabbiha would go inside the houses. I heard gunshots inside three houses, then I saw them come out and burn them," the witness said. "Most of the time I couldn't hear anything over the artillery fire ...