The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Time for what would have been an impossible way to kill a target in the first Assassins Creed: Have his health taken out single-handedly by another character. If you aren't familiar with guard factions and their ability to engage in combat with one another, check this out first.
http://thehiddenblade.com/altair-confessor-proof-enemy-factions-and-figh...

Templar vs Tamir

The regular Saracen guards are a different faction than the target Tamir. He appears to belong to the same faction as other similarly dressed guards at his assassination. At first I tried getting the guards in the area to kill Tamir, but even after so many hits he wouldn't die. Later I realized a Templar could do the job.

Luckily one is located pretty close Northeast of the bazaar. My original plan was to get Tamir to fight other guards and have those guards chase me to the Templar, but when that happened the Templar only went after me. So instead I'll lead the Templar to Tamir.

The route I take out of the place is in the Northwest, by where the target emerges from. Guards are eliminated along the way, then after getting the Templar's attention, backtrack the way you came.

The place I chose to "confess" (aka activate battle mode) the target is a corner where he'll take notice while chewing out one of the merchants. Make sure you are close to the wall out of sight and that the guard is in plain view of the target. With the Templar it was tricky because he chases you from the other side away from the target. I fixed that with a grab and throw, but high level Templars can counter those, and illegal actions will draw the attention of nearby enemies. I got detected a lot by Tamir.

The target will shout out one of his combat-starting phrases, and you will go into city alert mode as usual, but don't panic. The target hasn't detected you.

To throw the Templar off your track hide behind a wall while the target or another guard attacks him, and the Templar will engage them. Now just sit back and watch the fight from a distance (more on that later).

What I found out is that it takes a combo or counter for a target or Templar to die. Regular attacks never seem to incapacitate either of them, the same way that throwing knives will damage but not kill targets or Templars. Tamir doesn't perform combos or counters (understandable because Altair doesn't have those abilities in that memory block), so the Templar will win every time.

Notice that in two examples the Templar finishes with a combo. You don't really see it the second time, but can still hear the sound effects. Right after incapacitating Tamir, the Templar comes back to resume the fight with Altair, who is currently in the process of teleporting to prone assassinate the unconscious target.

Glitched State and Other Bonuses

In his fight with the target, the Templar quite literally is all talk no action when Altair is within a certain range. He continuously spouts out phrases he normally uses when spotting Altair. Haven't tested this out enough to determine if only an uncloned Templar does this, or if he only reacts that way around targets.

Targets after fighting other enemies will walk away. Even though you are exposed, you are still anonymous to the target. This opens up more stealth possibilities.

Glitches can sometimes occur after a character finishes of other enemies. In the video I got Tamir in a battle stance but backing up and not appearing to fight any existing NPC. Another time He walk away in a straight line to the point where he was walking at a wall and didn't react to an attack from Altair. Unpatched glitches like these might be yet another reason why character combat wasn't implemented.

And here's a map showing the setup to the Templar assisted assassination.
Blue line= Altair's route out of the souk to the Templar and back.
Red line= Tamir's circuit after entering the area.
Light green diamond= Location of Templar.
Blue dot= Where Altair and the Templar need to be to "confess" Tamir.
Red dot= Where Tamir needs to be to spot the Templar attacking Altair.