Drone attack leaves 80 dead, 240 injured in Homs city: Syria's health minister

In one of the deadliest attacks on the Syrian army in recent years, over 80 people were dead and several hundreds injured. A drone attack targetted a packed military graduation ceremony causing heavy casualties.

Beirut : Syria's health minister has raised the casualty tolls from a drone attack on Thursday that hit a packed military graduation ceremony in the central city of Homs to 80 killed and 240 wounded. It was one of the deadliest attacks on the Syrian army in recent years, with the country's conflict now in its thirteenth year.

Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabash said that civilians, including six children, and military personnel were among those killed. There were concerns the death toll could rise further as many of the wounded were in serious condition. In an earlier statement, Syria's military said that drones laden with explosives targeted the ceremony packed with young officers and their families as it was wrapping up in Homs. It accused insurgents backed by known international forces of the attack, without naming any particular group.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. 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.

The military has not provided any casualty numbers but Syria's state television said the government announced a three-day state of mourning, starting on Friday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, and the pro-government Sham FM radio station earlier reported the strikes.

The military accused insurgents backed by known international forces of the attack, without naming any particular group, and said that women and children were among those critically wounded. The Syrian military said it will respond with full force and decisiveness to these terrorist organisations, wherever they exist.

Syria's crisis started with peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad's government in March 2011, but quickly morphed into a full-blown civil war following the government's brutal crackdown on the protesters. The tide turned in Assad's favour against rebel groups in 2015, when Russia provided key military backing to Syria, as well as Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

So far, the war has killed half a million people, wounded hundreds of thousands and left many parts of the country destroyed. It has displaced half of Syria's prewar population of 23 million, including more than 5 million who are refugees outside Syria.

While most Arab governments have restored ties with the government Damascus, Syria remains divided, with a northwest enclave under the control of al-Qaida-linked militants from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group and Turkish-backed opposition fighters. The country's northeast is under control of US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.