100 people were killed and 240 injured in a drone attack on a military academy in the Syrian city of Homs on Thursday.
According to Arab media, the drone attack was carried out during the passing-out parade ceremony at the military academy.
Among the killed and wounded in the attack are military officers, personnel and Syrian civilians.
The Syrian defense minister left the ceremony shortly before the attack.
No militant group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Russia has accused Ukraine of trying to assassinate President Vladimir Putin by attacking Kremlin with drones.
The two countries are at war since February 2022.
In a statement, Russia said that Ukraine attempted to carry out a strike on the Kremlin residence of the President. Kremlin is a large government complex in central Moscow.
It said it regarded this “as a planned terrorist act and an assassination attempt on the president”.
Putin himself was not present at the location at the time.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky denied his country was behind it.
“We don’t attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory. We are defending our villages and cities,” he said, speaking on a visit to Finland.
Meanwhile, senior Ukrainian Presidential official Mykhailo Podolyak said the reported incident indicates that “Russia is clearly preparing a large-scale terrorist attack”.
Last year, despite immense backlash, Russia invaded Ukraine, leading to a bloody war that shows no signs of abating.
Following an investigation, a Pentagon inspector general said that a United States (US) airstrike that killed 10 civilians in Afghanistan was a mistake but did not violate any laws and doesn’t recommend any disciplinary action, reported Al Jazeera.
US Air Force Lieutenant General (Lt Gen) Sami Said stated: “They all have a genuine belief based on the information they had and the interpretation, that was a threat to US forces, an imminent threat to US forces. That’s a mistake. It’s a regrettable mistake. It’s an honest mistake. I understand the consequences, but it’s not criminal conduct, random conduct, negligence.”
Lt Gen Said admitted that there had been execution errors and communication breakdowns among the US forces at the time that led to civilian casualties.
Said was asked to investigate the August 29 drone strike on a white Toyota Corolla Sedan, which killed nine family members, including seven children and a man who worked for a US aid group.
According to the US air force general, the forces believed that the car they were following was an imminent threat as the US military had intelligence that Daesh militants were planning a fresh attack on the evacuation operations but they followed the wrong car.
He revealed, “We actually never ended up tracking the actual Toyota Corolla.”
He also admitted that the people involved in conducting the operation thought the house at the site of the target was empty.
“They were convinced that the compound didn’t have children in it. It turns out to be wrong,” he said. None of the individuals conducting the operation noticed a child entering the target area just two minutes before the attack was launched.
According to Dawn, Washington is working to pay financial reparations to the victims’ families but nothing has been finalised.
The United States announced it carried out a drone attack in eastern Afghanistan against a “planner” of an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant- Khorasan (ISIL/ISIS-K) group, after the attack outside Kabul’s airport that killed at least 175 Afghans and 13 US troops.
“US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner,” Captain Bill Urban, spokesperson for the US Central Command, said in a statement.
“The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties,” read the statement.
The announcement did not identify the targeted individual but indicated that this could be the first of many counter-attack at the ISIS-K targets for Thursday’s terrorist attacks at the Kabul airport.
The ISIS group had claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s Amaq News Agency said on its Telegram channel.
US President Joe Biden vowed to retaliate against Thursday’s attack in Kabul, saying that he will hunt down those responsible and make them pay.
Biden confirmed in a speech from the White House that the bombings were carried out by the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K), ISIL’s affiliate in Afghanistan.
“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive; we will not forget,” Biden said.
“We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests in our people with every measure at my command.”
Addressing an election rally in Kotli, Azad Kashmir, Prime Minister Imran Khan said, “Our ally, the one we considered our friend used to do drone attacks on our country. Drone attacks used to occur in Pakistan both during the tenure of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo, Nawaz Sharif, and former President, Asif Ali Zardari’s time.
They both used to condemn the attacks but deep with they had permitted for the attacks to occur. Why doesn’t any drone attack happen in my [PM Imran Khan] term.”
“You should not blame the United States for the drone attacks, our own people were involved,” added the prime minister.
PM Khan asked the people to question the Opposition as to what did they do for the betterment of their people while they were in power
“Both PML-N and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) both had five years in power, how much did these two parties advocate for the people of Kashmir internationally?” questioned PM Khan.
Khan reiterated that ever since the Indian Prime Miniter Narendra Modi’s party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power, the people of Kashmir have gone through the most turmoil.
“The ideology of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) being practiced by Modi is that of the Nazism, ‘borrowed by the German Nazi’,” said the PM.
“India has the strongest lobby with Israel and our Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharif) was busy inviting Modi to weddings for his own benefit.
Earlier during the day, Prime Minister Imran Khan had rubbished talk of him “wishing to turn Azad Jammu and Kashmir” into a new province of Pakistan.
“I do not know where all this talk has sprung from,” he said, dismissing any notion of such an idea.
“But what I want to make clear now, is that in 1948, there were two United Nations Security Council resolutions which granted the people of Kashmir the right to decide their own future. According to the UN resolutions, the people had to decide whether they want to join Hindustan or Pakistan.
“I want to clarify to all of you today. InshaAllah, a day will come, when all the sacrifices made by the people of Kashmir, will not be wasted. God will grant you that right. There will be a referendum, InshaAllah.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan, Dr Shahbaz Gill, said that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will be taking his curriculum vitae (CV) along with him to Washington.
“He [Bilawal Bhutto] will say we are ready to do anything to come into power,” said Gill at a press conference in Karachi.
“We will not allow such a deal and will not let Bilawal go the United States with any petitions.”
Gill also tweeted: “Is Bilawal going to Washington like his father to take the next turn of power?”
He further added, “Is this an appeal that if you bring us in power, then even if you demand financial stations or attempt a drone attack, we wouldn’t ask you about it, but in exchange, we want Washington’s blessings.”
“Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari might not know that time, the world and Pakistan have changed now,” added Gill.