100 Killed In Syria Drone Strike
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
DAMASCUS (Worthy News) – The Syrian defense ministry vowed revenge Thursday after at least 100 people were killed in one of the nation’s bloodiest-ever bombings on an army installation.
Civilians and military personnel were killed in the weaponized drone attack on a military academy in the central province of Homs, the defense ministry said.
It blamed “terrorist” groups backed by known “international forces” for the attack, but nobody claimed responsibility for the blast.
Drones bombed the site just minutes after Syria’s defense minister left a graduation ceremony there, witnesses said.
Besides those killed, some 240 people were wounded in the unprecedented drone attack in the 12 years of civil war, according to authorities.
Footage showed people, some in fatigues and others in civilian clothes, lying in pools of blood in a large courtyard, officials said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 100 people were killed and 125 injured. A source close to Syria’s government said the toll was around 100.
MOURNING VICTIMS
As residents plunged into mourning, Syria’s defense and foreign ministries pledged to respond “with full force” to the attack with heavy bombing attacks on the opposition-held zone of Idlib.
In power since succeeding his father in 2000, Bashar al-Assad fought for control of his nation after protests turned into civil war.
He inherited a repressive political structure from his father, Hafez al-Assad, with an inner circle dominated by members of the family’s minority Alawite Shia community.
Cracks began to appear in early 2011 after the Arab Spring wave of popular dissent.
However, a divided opposition and support for President Assad from his Iranian and Russian allies steadily turned the tide of battle in the government’s favor after 2017.
But the human suffering continues, with an estimated 15.3 million people needing humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
More than half of the population remains displaced from their homes. About 5.3 million refugees, including Christians, live in neighboring countries.
Over 6.8 million are internally displaced inside Syria, according to U.N. aid workers. Women and children comprise more than two-thirds of those displaced, according to U.N. estimates.