2023 Homs drone strike

Last updated
2023 Homs drone strike
Part of the Syrian civil war
Location Homs, Syria
Date5 October 2023
~14:00 (UTC+03:00)
TargetSyrian military graduation ceremony
Attack type
 Drone strike
Deaths89 [1]
Injured~277 [2] [1]
PerpetratorsUnknown

On 5 October 2023, a Syrian military graduation ceremony at the Homs Military Academy was targeted by a drone strike, killing at least 89 people and injuring 277 others. [2] [1] The attack followed increased clashes in the 'De-escalation Zone' located in northwestern Syria. The perpetrator of the attack is currently unknown. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Attack

The incident occurred just after the afternoon graduation ceremony had ended. The Syrian Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Health reported 89 casualties including mostly graduate soldiers in addition to 31 women and 5 children. [2] [1] [8] [9] [lower-alpha 1] The drones were believed to have originated in rebel-held territories north-west of Homs. [11]

Syrian Defense Minister Ali Mahmoud Abbas was in attendance at the graduation ceremony but left before the attack. [12] He later visited the Abdul-Qader Shaqfa Military Hospital where several of the casualties were brought. [13]

Aftermath

The Syrian Defence Ministry vowed to respond to the attacks “with full force”. [14] Retaliation was set in motion on the same day, in which the Syrian military carried out rocket and artillery strikes on the opposition-controlled zone of Idlib Governorate, killing at least 24 civilians and injuring 37 others. [15] [16] It also shelled rebel-held areas of Idlib and Aleppo Governorates. [17] [18] Meanwhile, Russian airstrikes hit regions in northwestern Hama Governorate. [19]

The areas targeted were controlled by different factions including Ansar al-Tawhid, Hurras al-Din, Tahrir al-Sham and Turkistan Islamic Party. [20]

Reactions

The Syrian government announced three days of mourning starting on 6 October. [2] The Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on the academy as a "cowardly terrorist attack" perpetrated by U.S.-backed "terrorist groups" to destabilize the situation in Syria. [21]

The Arab League, [22] released a statement condemning the attack. Argentina, [23] Algeria, [24] Armenia, [25] Belarus, [26] Brazil, [27] Egypt, [28] India, Iran, [29] Iraq, [30] Jordan, [31] Lebanon, [32] North Korea, [33] Oman, [34] Palestine, [35] Romania, [36] Russia, [37] Sudan, [38] the United Arab Emirates [39] and Venezuela [40] expressed their condolences to the Syrian government, according to the state news agency SANA. [41]

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was "deeply concerned" about developments in Syria, according to his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric. [42] Geir Pedersen, the United Nations' special envoy to Syria, called the attack "horrific" and called on all parties to the conflict to "exercise the utmost restraint". [11] The Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, also offered his condolences to President Bashar al-Assad. [43]

Notes

  1. ↑ According to SOHR, the drone strike resulted in the deaths of 123 people, including 54 civilians, among whom were 39 women and children. [10]

Related Research Articles

The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from May to August 2011, including the escalation of violence in many Syrian cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Syrian Army</span> Opposition faction in the Syrian Civil War

The Free Syrian Army is a big-tent coalition of decentralized Syrian opposition rebel groups in the Syrian civil war founded on 29 July 2011 by Colonel Riad al-Asaad and six officers who defected from the Syrian Armed Forces. The officers announced that the immediate priority of the Free Syrian Army was to safeguard the lives of protestors and civilians from the deadly crackdown by Bashar al-Assad's security apparatus; with the ultimate goal of accomplishing the objectives of the Syrian revolution, namely, the end to the decades-long reign of the ruling al-Assad family. In late 2011, the FSA was the main Syrian military defectors group. Initially a formal military organization at its founding, its original command structure dissipated by 2016, and the FSA identity has since been used by various Syrian opposition groups.

The following is a timeline of the Syrian uprising from September to December 2011. This period saw the uprising take on many of the characteristics of a civil war, according to several outside observers, including the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, as armed elements became better organized and began carrying out successful attacks in retaliation for the ongoing crackdown by the Syrian government on demonstrators and defectors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daraa Governorate clashes (2011–2013)</span> Series of military confrontations in Syria

The 2011–2013 Daraa Governorate clashes are a series of military confrontations between the Syrian Army and the Free Syrian Army in Daraa Governorate, Syria, which began in November 2011, after widescale protests and crackdown on protesters in Daraa had lasted since April 2011. The clashes had been ongoing as part of the Syrian civil war, until the U.N. brokered cease fire came into effect on 14 April 2012. Sporadic clashes continued since then, however.

The Rif Dimashq clashes were a series of unrests and armed clashes in and around Damascus, the capital of Syria, from November 2011 until a stalemate in March 2012. The violence was part of the wider early insurgency phase of the Syrian civil war. Large pro-government and anti-government protests took place in the suburbs and center of Damascus, with the situation escalating when members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) started attacking military targets in November.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idlib Governorate clashes (September 2011 – March 2012)</span> Syrian conflict battles

The September 2011 – March 2012 Idlib Governorate clashes were the violent incidents that took place in Idlib Governorate, a province of Syria, from September 2011 and prior to the April 2012 Idlib Governorate Operation.

Ghanem Ibrahim al-Hassan was a Syrian Brigadier General who was shot and killed in Idlib by armed opposition fighters during the Syrian Civil War, in the 2011 Idlib clashes, according to Syrian state media SANA. He had been training soldiers at the Assad Military Engineering Academy in the town of Saraqeb in Idlib. According to SANA, al-Hasan was from Homs.

The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to April 2012, during which time the spate of protests that began in January 2011 lasted into another calendar year. An Arab League monitoring mission ended in failure as Syrian troops and anti-government militants continued to do battle across the country and the Syrian government prevented foreign observers from touring active battlefields, including besieged opposition strongholds. A United Nations-backed ceasefire brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan met a similar fate, with unarmed UN peacekeepers' movements tightly controlled by the government and fighting.

The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from May to August 2012. The majority of death tolls reported for each day comes from the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition activist group based in Syria, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another opposition group based in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idlib Governorate clashes (June 2012 – April 2013)</span> Part of the Syrian civil war

The June 2012–April 2013 Idlib Governorate clashes was a series of clashes within the scope of the Syrian civil war, that took place in Syria's Idlib Governorate. The events followed the April 2012 Idlib Governorate Operation by the Syrian government and consequent cease-fire attempt, which had lasted from 14 April to 2 June 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turkish military operation in Idlib Governorate</span> Turkish military operation in Syria

The Turkish military operation in Idlib Governorate, code-named Idlib De-escalation Control Force activities by Turkey, is an operation by the Turkish Armed Forces which started in October 2017, following the earlier Operation Euphrates Shield. It is the third cross-border operation by the Turkish military, following Operation Euphrates Shield and Operation Shah Euphrates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northwestern Syria offensive (December 2019–March 2020)</span> Military operation of the Syrian civil war

The 2019–2020 northwestern Syria offensive, codenamed "Dawn of Idlib 2," was a military operation launched by the armed forces of the Syrian Arab Republic, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and other allied militias against Syrian opposition and allied fighters of the Syrian National Army, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Rouse the Believers Operations Room, the Turkistan Islamic Party, and other rebel and Salafi jihadist forces in Idlib and surrounding governorates during the Syrian civil war. The offensive began on 19 December 2019 and saw Russian-backed pro-Syrian government forces clash with Turkish-backed opposition groups along with leaving 980,000 civilians displaced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homs school bombing</span> 2014 terrorist attack in Syria

The Homs school bombing occurred on 1 October 2014 in Homs, Syria in an Alawite majority neighborhood during the Syrian civil war. The attacker initially detonated an IED that was in front of the Akrama al-Makhzumi Al-Muhdatha elementary school. Then he blew himself up at another gate of a nearby school, Akrama al-Makhzumi. The double bombing killed 54 people: 47 children, 3 members of security forces and 4 adult civilians. The attack was the deadliest strike to occur in a government controlled area in over a year, with no group immediately taking responsibility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Spring Shield</span> Turkish military operation in Syria

Operation Spring Shield was a cross-border military operation carried out by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in the Idlib Governorate of northwestern Syria against the Syrian Armed Forces and allied militias. The operation was launched on 27 February 2020 in direct response to the Balyun airstrikes, aiming to address the escalating situation in the region.

The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war for 2020. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian civil war.

The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war for 2021. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian civil war.

The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war for 2022. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found in Casualties of the Syrian civil war.

Starting on 2 December 2022, a series of intensified clashes broke out of the frontlines of the 'Idlib de-escalation zone' located in the governorates of Idlib, Aleppo, Hama and Latakia. These confrontations initiated through inghimasi, infiltration and sniper attacks by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied militant groups against positions held by the pro-government Syrian Arab Army (SAA) positions. These attacks were called We Will Not Reconcile by HTS.

The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war for 2023. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found in Casualties of the Syrian civil war.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Funeral ceremony of martyrs of the terrorist attack on Military academy begins with popular and official attendance". SANA. 6 October 2023. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Drone attack kills 80 and wounds 240 at a packed Syrian military graduation ceremony, official says". Associated Press. 2023-10-06. Retrieved 2023-10-06.
  3. ↑ "More than 60 dead in drone attack on military academy in Syria's Homs -war monitor, security source". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  4. ↑ "Drone attack on Syria military academy leaves at least 60 dead". France24. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  5. ↑ "Drone attack on Syria military college leaves dozens of casualties". CNN. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  6. ↑ "More than 60 dead from drone strike on Syrian military college - report". i24 News. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  7. ↑ "De-ath toll of "War College in Homs" | Nearly 130 combatants and civilians kil-led". SOHR . 8 October 2023.
  8. ↑ Gritten, David (2023-10-06). "Syria war: At least 100 dead in drone attack on cadet graduation ceremony". BBC.
  9. ↑ "Health Ministry: number of martyrs from the terrorist attack on Military Academy in Homs rises to 89". SANA. 6 October 2023.
  10. ↑ "Latest development | 54 civilians and 62 recently-graduated officers among 123 persons killed in unknown explosion in Homs military school". SOHR. 6 October 2023.
  11. 1 2 Gritten, David (2023-10-06). "Syria war: Dozens killed in drone attack on graduation ceremony". BBC.
  12. ↑ "At least 100 killed in drone attack on Syrian military academy". Reuters. 5 October 2023.
  13. ↑ "Funerals held in Syria for dozens of victims killed in deadliest attack in years". Associated Press. 6 October 2023.
  14. ↑ "At least 100 killed in drone attack on Syrian military academy". Reuters. 2023-10-05. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  15. ↑ "استشهاد وإصابة 12 مدني بقصف لقوات النظام على ريفي حلب وإدلب ضمن مناطق "الهيئة".. وارتفاع عدد الشهداء في أقل من 24 ساعة إلى 15 مدني". SOHR. 6 October 2023. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  16. ↑ "In intense missile bombardment by regime forces, 6 civilians were martyred and injured in Idlib and its countryside". 6 October 2023. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  17. ↑ "Syria mourns dozens of people killed in Homs drone attack". Aljazeera. 2023-10-06. Retrieved 2023-10-06.
  18. ↑ "In bombing by regime forces, 5 people were martyred, including children, in Termanin in the northern countryside of Idlib". SOHR. 6 October 2023. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  19. ↑ "Child among 3 killed, 30 injured in attacks by Russian, Syrian regime forces in northwestern Syria". Anadolu Ajansı. 6 October 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  20. ↑ "بعد الهجوم الارهابي على الكلية الحربية في حمص.. الجيش السوري يستهدف مواقع المسلحين في ريفي حماة وإدلب.. والخارجية السورية تطالب الأمم المتحدة بمساءلة "رعاة الإرهاب"". raialyoum.com (in Arabic). 5 October 2023.
  21. ↑ m.eyon (2023-10-05). "Syria condemns the cowardly terrorist attack that targeted Military Academy graduation ceremony- Foreign Ministry". Syrian Arab News Agency. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  22. ↑ "Arab League strongly condemns the terrorist attack on Military Academy in Homs". SANA. October 6, 2023.
  23. ↑ "Argentina condemns terrorist attack on Military Academy in Homs". 8 October 2023.
  24. ↑ "Algeria condemns the terrorist attack on Military College, affirms its full solidarity with Syria". SANA. October 6, 2023.
  25. ↑ "Armenia expresses deep condolences on victims of Military Academy's terrorist attack". SANA. October 6, 2023.
  26. ↑ "President al-Assad receives a cable of condolence from Belarusian President on martyrs of the terrorist attack in Homs". SANA. 6 October 2023.
  27. ↑ "Brazil expresses condolences to Syria for terrorist attack". SANA. October 6, 2023.
  28. ↑ "Egypt expresses condolences to Syria for victims of terrorist attack on Military Academy". SANA. 6 October 2023.
  29. ↑ "Iran strongly condemns Syria terrorist attack". Mehr News Agency. 2023-10-06. Retrieved 2023-10-06.
  30. ↑ "Iraq condemns Homs attack, extends condolences to Syria". Shafaq News.
  31. ↑ "Jordan condemns the terrorist attack on the Military College in Homs". SANA. October 6, 2023.
  32. ↑ "Lebanese Foreign Ministry denounces the terrorist attack on Homs Military Academy". 6 October 2023.
  33. ↑ "North Korea condemns attack in Syria". Reuters. 8 October 2023.
  34. ↑ "جريدة عمان | سلطنة عُمان تُعزّي سوريا في ضحايا هجوم الكلية الحربية في مدينة حمص" (in Arabic). nabd.com. 5 October 2023.
  35. ↑ "الرئيس عباس يعزي الرئيس السوري بضحايا هجوم حمص" (in Arabic). sadanews.ps. 6 October 2023.
  36. ↑ "Romania offers condolences on victims of Military Academy's terrorist attack". 7 October 2023.
  37. ↑ "Condolences to President of Syria Bashar al-Assad". 6 October 2023.
  38. ↑ "Sudan condemns the terrorist attack on the Military Academy in Homs". 6 October 2023.
  39. ↑ "UAE condemns terrorist attack that targeted military college in Syria". wam. May 10, 2023.
  40. ↑ "Venezuela strongly condemns the terrorist attack on Military Academy in Homs". SANA. 6 October 2023.
  41. ↑ "Roundup: Drone attack on Syrian military academy kills over 80-Xinhua". english.news.cn.
  42. ↑ "Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General". United Nations. 5 October 2023.
  43. ↑ "Berri cables condolences to Assad". National News Agency. 6 October 2023.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.