Drone strike kills 100 at Syrian military academy

AFP | Beirut                                  

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

An attack yesterday on a Syrian military academy killed more than 100 people, a war monitor said, with state media blaming “terrorist organisations” for the deadly drone strike in government-held Homs.

Separately, Turkish air raids in the war-torn country’s Kurdish-held northeast killed at least nine people, according to Kurdish forces, after Ankara had threatened raids in retaliation for a bomb attack.

In the central Syrian city of Homs, “armed terrorist organisations” targeted “the graduation ceremony for officers of the military academy”, an army statement carried by official news agency SANA said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, reported “more than 100 dead, around half of them military graduates, and including 14 civilians”, revising up a previous toll.

It said at least 125 others were wounded. Health Minister Hassan al-Ghobash told state television the “preliminary” toll was 80 dead “including six women and six children” and around 240 wounded. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The attack was carried out with “explosive-laden drones”.