BEIRUT: An attack on a Syrian military academy on Thursday killed more than 100 people, a war monitor said, with state media blaming “terrorist organisations” for the 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, reporting casualties.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor with a vast network of sources on the ground, 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. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Nine die in Turkish strikes in Kurdish-held north-eastern region

The attack was carried out with “explosive-laden drones”, according to the military statement, vowing to “respond with full force”.

The government declared three days of mourning starting on Friday, state television reported. Later on Thursday in the rebel-held Idlib region, residents reported wide and heavy regime bombardment.

The Observatory said four civilians were killed and others wounded in the assault on several towns in the north-western opposition bastion.

Swathes of Idlib region are controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led by the former local Al Qaeda branch. The militant group has used drones to attack government-held areas in the past.

Overnight, Syrian army shelling killed an elderly woman and four of her children in a rebel-held area of Aleppo province, rescue workers and the Observatory said.

Power stations hit

The Turkish strikes on Hasakeh province in Kurdish-held northeast Syria “killed six members of the internal security” agency, a statement from the Kurdish force’s media centre said.

A worker at a site in the province was also killed, according to Farhad Shami, spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army. The Kurdish authorities’ statement also said “two civilians” were killed in a strike on a motorcycle. Turkiye regularly strikes targets in Syrian Kurds’ semi-autonomous region. On Wednesday, Ankara warned of more intense cross-border air raids, after concluding that militants who staged a weekend attack in the Turkish capital came from Syria.

Two power stations in the area were also hit, as well as the vicinity of a dam. The SDF’s Shami said the strikes had targeted military and civilian sites.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2023