Over 80 killed at Syria military academy

DAMASCUS — A drone attack hit a crowded military graduation ceremony on Thursday in Syria's central province of Homs, killing over 80 people and wounding 240, the country's health minister said, in one of the deadliest recent attacks in the war-torn country for more than a decade.

The incident happened after a graduation ceremony for Syrian military officers at the Military Academy in Homs.

Syria's Health Ministry Hassan al-Ghabbash said 89 people had been killed, including 31 women and five children.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights disclosed a higher death toll of over 120, including at least 12 civilians. The UK-based watchdog noted the presence of Syria's defense minister at the ceremony, who departed before the attack.

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. Without naming any particular group, the military said they would "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.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement following the attack, calling on the United Nations and its Security Council to vehemently denounce the assault.

The ministry pinned responsibility on the United States, branding the attack as "part of the brutal attacks perpetrated by the US occupation-backed terrorist groups to destabilize the situation in Syria".

The UN's Syria envoy said the "horrific scenes" showed that the status quo in the war-torn country was unsustainable, and warned that the security situation could worsen further.

Separately, Turkish drones and fighter jets carried out a series of airstrikes targeting Kurdish militia positions in northern and eastern Syria that killed at least nine people, according to Kurdish forces, after Ankara had threatened raids in retaliation for a bomb attack.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Turkish air force carried out 24 airstrikes on Kurdish sites, three by fighter jets and 21 by drones. It added that the attacks targeted critical infrastructure, including oil, electricity and water stations, causing significant damage to the affected facilities.

The Syrian Arab News Agency said two electricity plants and one water station went out of service in the northeastern Al-Hasakah Province as a result of Turkish shelling.

"I am gravely concerned by the escalating violence in Syria today," Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, said in a statement issued in Geneva.

Call for restraint

"I deeply deplore the loss of life on all sides. I urgently appeal to all sides to exercise the utmost restraint. Today's horrific scenes are a reminder of the need to immediately de-escalate violence, toward a nationwide cease-fire and a cooperative approach to countering Security Council-listed terrorist groups."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep concerns about the drone attack in Homs as well as reports of retaliatory shelling in northwestern Syria, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Guterres condemned all violence and called for a nationwide cease-fire.

The Syrian government declared a three-day official mourning period beginning on Friday, during which flags in Syria and at all Syrian embassies and diplomatic missions overseas will be lowered to half-staff.

Russia, Oman, India, and Iran expressed their condolences to the Syrian government, state news agency SANA reported.

This incident is part of a rising trend of drone attacks in Syria in recent months, with rebel factions employing drones to target government installations and infrastructure.

The conflict in Syria has killed more than half a million people since it began in 2011, spiraling into a complex battlefield involving foreign armies, militias and extremists.

Agencies - Xinhua