A promotion ceremony for regime officers at a military academy in Homs (Syria) ends in tragedy. At least 100 people were killed, including about half of military graduates and 14 civilians, and another hundred were seriously injured as a “preliminary count” Thursday in a drone attack during the ceremony at the Syrian military college, while Turkey carried out carried out airstrikes in Kurdish areas that caused at least nine deaths. The massacre in Homs is one of the deadliest attacks against a military installation in years, perpetrated in an area controlled by the Syrian Government and attributed by the Syrian army to “terrorist organizations,” sources from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) indicated. A UK based organization that has an extensive network of sources in Syria.
The Syrian Ministry of Defense has only confirmed that there have been “dozens” of victims, including deaths and injuries, in this attack carried out by “terrorists using drones loaded with explosives” against the military academy, which it considered “cowardly and without precedents” and that they are sure that there will be “a firm response.
So far, no group has claimed responsibility for this attack, which took place far from the radius of the actions carried out by the insurgent factions against Syrian Army positions. Jihadist groups that control part of Syrian territory sometimes use armed drones.
The event occurred at a time when the ceremony had already ended and the officers were taking photos and greeting each other, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified.
Government forces regained full control of the city of Homs in May 2017, after violent fighting, becoming a rebel stronghold following the 2011 pro-democracy uprising.
In response to the attack in Homs, government forces carried out airstrikes on Thursday that residents said targeted the Idlib region, the country’s last rebel stronghold in the northwest. The OSDH reported four civilian deaths.
The conflict in Syria, triggered by the repression of pro-democracy demonstrations, has caused more than half a million deaths and divided the country. The Kurds have established an autonomous administration in the northeast of the country, which is regularly targeted by the Turkish army.
This Thursday, Turkish drones attacked oil facilities, two power plants, a dam and a factory in Hasaka province, controlled by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Turkey claimed it was acting in retaliation for an attack that hit the Interior Ministry in Ankara on Sunday, wounding two police officers.
“Six members of the security forces were killed in one attack” and “two civilians” who were riding a motorcycle were killed in another attack, according to a statement from the Kurdish forces. Shortly afterward, SDF spokesman Farhad Chami reported a ninth victim.
Turkey claimed that the perpetrators of the attack in Ankara, claimed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK, Turkish Kurdish), had been trained in Syria, accusations denied by SDF leader Mazloum Abdi.
