Drone attack kills at least 80 at a Syrian military graduation ceremony
A drone attack hit a crowded military graduation ceremony Thursday in the Syrian city of Homs, killing 80 and wounding 240, the health minister said, in one of the deadliest attacks on the war-torn country's army in years.
The strike killed civilians, including six children, as well as military personnel, and there were concerns the death toll could rise as many of the wounded were in serious condition, Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabash said.
Syria's military said in an earlier statement that drones laden with explosives targeted the ceremony packed with young officers and their families as it was wrapping up. It accused insurgents “backed by known international forces” of the attack, without naming any particular group, and said “it will respond with full force and decisiveness to these terrorist organizations, wherever they exist.”
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack as Syria endures its 13th year of conflict.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “expressed deep concern” about the drone attack in Homs as well as reports of retaliatory shelling in northwest Syria, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
“U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned all violence and called for a nationwide cease-fire,” the spokesperson added.
The military did not provide any casualty numbers, but Syria's state television said the government announced a three-day state of mourning starting Friday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, and the pro-government Sham FM radio station earlier reported the strikes.
Syria's crisis started with peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad's government in March 2011 but quickly morphed into a full-blown civil war after the government's brutal crackdown on the protesters.
The tide turned in Assad's favor against rebel groups in 2015, when Russia provided key military backing to Syria, as well as Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
So far, the war has killed half a million people, wounded hundreds of thousands and left many parts of the country destroyed. It has displaced half of Syria's prewar population of 23 million, including more than 5 million who are refugees outside Syria.
While most Arab governments have restored ties with the government in Damascus, Syria remains divided, with a northwest enclave under the control of al-Qaida-linked militants from the Hayat Tahrir alSham group and Turkishbacked opposition fighters. The country's northeast is under control of U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
The city of Homs is deep in government-held territory, far from frontlines where government and rebel forces routinely skirmish.
After the drone attack, the Syrian government forces shelled villages in Idlib province, in the rebel-held northwest. In the towns of Al-Nayrab and Sarmin east of Idlib city, at least 10 civilians were wounded according to opposition-held northwestern Syria's civil defense organization known as the White Helmets. Government forces continue to shell other areas in the rebel-held enclave.
The Syrian army shelled another village in the region earlier Thursday before the drone attack over Homs, killing at least five civilians, activists and emergency workers said. The shelling hit a family house on the outskirts of the the village of Kafr Nouran in western Aleppo province, according to the White Helmets.