A drone attack launched on Thursday targeted a military academy in Homs, Syria, during a graduation ceremony for officers, Syrian state media reported.

Reportedly, a loitering munition targeted the ceremony and left numerous martyred, with the toll of casualties ranging in the dozens.

"Armed terrorist organizations targeted the graduation ceremony for officers of the military academy in Homs", a military statement reported on by the state-owned SANA news agency said.

The Syrian Arab Army decried the "cowardly... unprecedented" attack and underlined that they would "respond fiercely to all terrorist organizations wherever they are," pledging to hold the perpetrators and the masterminds behind the attack accountable.

The statement said there were "a number of deaths, both civilians and military and dozens of wounded", some critically, including officers and their families.

The number or names of the martyrs and wounded have not yet been revealed. Observers have decried this attack as the first of its kind, as it was carried out using kamikaze drones far from the border.

Defense Minister left before attack

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A high-ranking security source denied circulating reports to the Russian news agency Sputnik about Syria's Defense Minister attending the ceremony and being there when the attack took place.

According to the source, the minister of defense attended the ceremony and left as soon as it ended, whereas the terrorist attack took place 21 minutes after the ceremony ended.

Sources said the attack occurred while the graduating students were taking souvenir photos with their families on the occasion of graduation.

The attack comes one day after the Syrian Arab Army units targeted the headquarters of armed groups across Idlib's countryside in northern Syria. 

As a result of the heavy artillery targeting the groups, a number were killed and others were wounded. Simultaneously, the Syrian army announced they had shot down two drones belonging to armed groups in northern Aleppo.

The Syrian Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday in a statement published via its website that "units of the Syrian army targeted terrorist headquarters in the Idlib countryside, and shot down two drones in the northern countryside of Aleppo."

The ministry's statement added that, as part of the response to the repeated attacks by the armed groups targeting safe villages and towns alongside Syrian Arab Army military posts across Hama and Idlib, "units of the Syrian army carried out concentrated attacks on terrorist headquarters, their fortifications, and their artillery positions."

Syrian army carried out qualitative operations against terrorists: MoD

The Syrian Ministry of Defense confirmed in early September that in cooperation with the Russian Air Forces, units of the Syrian Arab Army forces operation in Idlib and Hama countryside carried out qualitative operations against terrorist organizations over several days.

In a statement, the Ministry said the operations come in response to "the flagrant violation committed by the terrorist organizations on the Malaga axis in the southern countryside of Idlib."

The statement also pointed out that the qualitative operations come in light of the repeated attacks carried out by armed terrorist organizations supported by some regional and international parties on safe villages, towns, and sites, as well as points of the Syrian army adjacent to the de-escalation zones in the Idlib and Hama countrysides.

The Syrian Ministry of Defense announced that the operations led to the destruction of a large number of terrorist headquarters, operations rooms, and warehouses, including weapons, equipment, drones, and communications devices.

It highlighted that 111 terrorists were killed in the operation, most of them belonging to the so-called Ansar al-Tawhid organization, which is affiliated with al-Qaeda, and more than 80 other terrorists were injured.