Family members of some of the victims of a deadly drone attack on a crowded military graduation ceremony that killed scores gathered outside a military hospital in the central city of Homs on Friday to collect the bodies of their loved ones, who died in one of Syria’s deadliest single attacks in years.
Thursday’s strike on the Homs Military Academy killed scores of people, including more 31 women and atleast five children according to the health ministry. The death toll could rise as some of the wounded are in critical condition. Syria announced a three-day state of mourning starting Friday.
Syria’s military said in a statement Thursday that drones laden with explosives targeted the ceremony packed with young officers and their families as it was wrapping up. Without naming any particular group, the military accused insurgents “backed by known international forces” for the attack and said “it will respond with full force and decisiveness to these terrorist organizations, wherever they exist.”
In Homs, hundreds of people, many of them dressed in black and weeping, gathered outside the Abdul-Qader Shaqfa Military Hospital where the bodies of 30 victims in coffins draped with Syrian flags were put in ambulances to be taken to their hometowns for burial.
Army Lt. Ibrahim Shaaban came to collect the body of his fiancee, Raneem Quba, 23, who was killed along with her father, Mohammed, and younger sister, Rima, while attending the graduation of her brother, Lt. Hussein Quba.
“I feel that my back was broken,” Shaaban said, holding back his tears while standing by her coffin. “She was not only a fiancee, but a mother, a sister and a friend.”
Legislator Bassam Mohammed said targeting a place where civilians are present “is a terrorist criminal act,” and that the attackers intended to inflict large numbers of casualties.
Syrian Defense Minister Gen. Ali Abbas was present Friday outside the hospital, where he comforted the families of victims. An opposition war monitor reported Thursday that Abbas had left the graduation ceremony shortly before the attack.
One of the survivors, Lt. Jaafar Mohammed, 23, said he was taking some photos with relatives by the platform and something suddenly exploded in front of them.
“I was thrown to the ground,” said Mohammed, who suffered an arm injury. He said his brother was killed and his father and younger brother were also injured.
Source: Arab News
