2023-10-06 07:18:00
The toll is very heavy. More than 110 people were killed Thursday in an attack on a military academy in Syria, which promised to “respond firmly”, raising fears of an escalation.
The attack on a promotion ceremony for regime officers in Homs (center) was blamed on “terrorist organizations” by the Syrian army, which promised to “respond firmly”. It was carried out “using drones loaded with explosives”, according to the army.
The attack left “112 dead, including 21 civilians” and at least 120 injured, according to a new report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), an organization based in the United Kingdom with a vast network. from sources in Syria.
Syria: deadly attack on the Homs military academy
© / afp.com/Sophie RAMIS, Sylvie HUSSON, Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA
A response in the Idlib region
Syrian Health Minister Hassan al-Ghobash announced a “preliminary” toll of 80 dead, “including six women and six children”, and around 240 injured. The attack has not been claimed. Jihadist groups which control part of Syrian territory sometimes use armed drones.
Government forces responded with bombings which, according to residents, targeted the Idleb region, the country’s last rebel stronghold, in the northwest. The OSDH reported eight deaths and 30 injured.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “is deeply concerned” after the attack in Homs, his spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said. He “is also deeply concerned by reports of retaliatory bombings” in northwest Syria. For his part, the UN special envoy for Syria called Thursday for “an immediate de-escalation” of violence in Syria.
“Today’s horrific scenes are a reminder of the need for an immediate de-escalation of violence, a nationwide ceasefire and a cooperative approach to combating UN Security Council-listed terrorist groups. security”, declared Geir Pedersen, in a press release published in Geneva.
During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, five members of the same family were killed in a bombardment by regime forces on a rebel area in the province of Aleppo (northwest). Started in 2011, the conflict in Syria has left more than half a million dead and divided the country, where the United States, Russia, an ally of the regime, and Turkey have deployed troops in different regions.
A Turkish drone shot down
Turkey’s Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday evening that Ankara’s forces carried out airstrikes in northern Syria, destroying 30 targets, including “shelters, depots and storage sites.”
Earlier in the evening, Turkish media reported new Turkish strikes against Kurdish forces in Syria, saying that “PKK/YPG arms and ammunition depots were destroyed” during an operation carried out by the units from MIT, the intelligence services. The Kurds have notably established an autonomous administration in the northeast, which is regularly targeted by the Turkish army.
On Thursday, Turkish drones targeted oil sites, two power plants, a dam and a factory during the day in the province of Hassaké, controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition dominated by the Kurds. Kurdish forces announced that Turkey had carried out 21 strikes that left 11 people dead, including five civilians and six members of the security forces.
Turkey claims to be acting in retaliation for an attack which targeted the Interior Ministry in Ankara on Sunday, injuring two police officers. According to her, the perpetrators of the attack, claimed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK, Turkish Kurdish), were trained in Syria, accusations denied by the leader of the FDS, Mazloum Abdi. The SDF spearheaded the fight against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in Syria in 2019 and still enjoys support from Washington.
Ankara considers the main component of the SDF, the YPG (People’s Protection Units), as an extension of the PKK, described as a “terrorist organization” by Turkey and its Western allies. In Washington, the American Department of Defense announced that the United States had shot down a Turkish drone in Syria on Thursday, believing that it represented a potential threat to American forces there.
“The situation is getting worse”
After Thursday’s strikes, columns of smoke were visible above the Qahtaniya oil site near the Turkish border, according to AFP correspondents, while firefighters headed towards the main Qamichli power plant in the province of Hassake.
In the central market of Qamichli, traders and the few customers had their eyes glued to television screens and their cell phones. “The situation is getting worse every day. Turkey doesn’t let us breathe and targets us every day. We just want our children to live in peace,” said Hassan al-Ahmad, a 35-year-old trader.
The Kurdish autonomous administration called on Thursday “the international community, the international coalition” against ISIS as well as Russia to “take positions capable of deterring” Turkey, which carried out three major operations against the Kurdish forces in Syria.
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