BEIRUT, October 6. /TASS/. A terrorist attack on a military college in the Syrian city of Homs has thus far taken the lives of 89 victims, the Syrian Health Ministry reported on its page on Facebook (social media site banned in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which is designated as extremist in Russia).

According to the ministry, the fatalities include 31 women and 5 children. At least 277 people were wounded.

Earlier, the Health Ministry reported 81 dead and 240 injured.

The attack, in which drones were used, took place on October 5 on the college’s training grounds at the conclusion of a festive ceremony for commissioning the school's cadets as officers. An eyewitness told TASS by telephone that "explosions were heard near the stands where the families of military personnel, their parents, brothers, sisters, wives and children were standing." The country has declared three days of mourning for the dead.

The Syrian army's artillery launched massive rocket and mortar attacks on the bases of the terrorist band, from which they had launched the drones toward Homs. According to Al Mayadeen TV, the new shipment of drones used in the attack was delivered three months ago from France and was intended for mercenaries of the Turkistan Islamic Party. This extremist organization is allied with the terrorist group Al-Nusra Front, also known as Front for the Conquest of the Levant (banned in Russia) and is composed of Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group native to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwestern China. Its fighters are based in the mountainous areas of Latakia and Idlib in Syria, which border on Turkey. Other recipients of the drones were Islamists from Kataib al-Mahajireen, also fighting on the side of Al-Nusra Front.