A drone attack on a military academy during a graduation ceremony on Thursday killed at least 100 people in Syria’s central Homs, one of the bloodiest attacks ever against a Syrian army installation, reported BBC. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least nine of the dead were civilians, Reuters reported citing a war monitor. The human rights body said more than 100 people were killed and nearly 125 were injured, as per Al Jazeera. According to Reuters, the Syrian defence ministry has blamed “terrorists” but did not give more details. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Syria’s military said drones laden with explosives targeted the ceremony on Thursday just after it ended. In a statement, as per Al Jazeera, the military accused fighters “backed by known international forces” for the deadly attack.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Hassan Al-Ghabash gave a lower figure of 80 to state television, the report added. He further said that six children were among the dead, but that about 240 people had been injured. Reports mentioned that the death toll could rise further as many of the wounded were in serious condition.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has “expressed deep concern” at the drone attack in Homs as well as “reports of retaliatory shelling” in northwest Syria, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
As per a BBC report, first responders from the White Helmets reported that five civilians had been killed in missile strikes on several cities, towns and villages in the opposition-held Idlib province.
A statement from the General Command of the Armed Forces said they “consider this act an unprecedented criminal one, and affirms that it will respond with full force and determination to these terrorist groups wherever they are”, as per Syrian state news agency Sana.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) stated that Syria’s defence minister attended the graduation ceremony but left minutes before the attack.
In a later report the agency quoted Health Minister Hassan al-Gabbash saying the strike had injured more than 200 people and that six women and six children were among the dead.
Over half a million people have been killed in the Syrian civil war that began after President Bashar al-Assad cracked down violently on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011.
