No fewer than 100 people have been killed and 240 more wounded, following a drone attack on a military college in Syria’s Homs province during a graduation ceremony a war monitor and the Syrian health minister have said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights disclosed that no fewer than 100 people were killed and 125 injured. An official in the alliance backing Syria’s government said the toll was about 100.
Health Minister Hassan Al-Ghabash gave a lower figure, telling state television 80 people had been killed, including six children, but that about 240 people had been injured. There were concerns the death toll could rise further as many of the wounded were in serious condition.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Syria’s military earlier said drones laden with explosives targeted the ceremony on Thursday as it came to an end. In a statement, the military accused fighters ‘backed by known international forces’ for the attack.
Read Also: Syria Army Shelling Claims Lives Of Five Civilians
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ‘expressed deep concern’ at the drone attack in Homs as well as “reports of retaliatory shelling” in northwest Syria, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
Syria’s defence minister attended the graduation ceremony but left minutes before the attack, the Reuters news agency reported, citing a Syrian security source and a source in the regional alliance backing the Damascus government against opposition groups.
‘After the ceremony, people went down to the courtyard and the explosives hit. We don’t know where it came from, and corpses littered the ground,’ said a Syrian man who had helped set up decorations at the ceremony.
At least six people were killed, including a woman and child, and 40 others wounded in the attacks on the northwestern province of Idlib, according to a Syrian volunteer emergency rescue group.
The attacks targeted 20 villages and towns across Idlib governorate, according to the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets. At least eight children and eight women were among the wounded.
The attacks, launched from government positions south and east of Jabal al-Zawiya, began at 3:30pm local time (12:30 GMT). Locals say the attacks targeted a power station and a popular market.