Syria: One dead in a UAV attack on a church

One person was killed and 12 others were injured in Syria on Sunday when a rebel-launched UAV struck a site where a church inauguration ceremony was underway in Hama province (central), the official Syrian news agency SANA reported.

Initially, the agency spoke of two dead and twelve injured due to “a rocket fired by terrorist organizations against a religious gathering in the town of Suqailambia, near Hama.”

In a more recent cable, he said the attack was carried out with a UAV rigged with explosives, killing one civilian and injuring a dozen others.

For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an NGO based on a wide network of sources in Syria, confirmed the attack, estimating that it was a mortar or UAV attack by a rebel group that has positions in the nearby area. He also spoke of one civilian dead and several injured.

The attack came two days after Russian airstrikes killed seven people, including four children, in Idlib province, the last stronghold of jihadists and rebels in Syria.

About half of Idlib province, as well as parts of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces are controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.

Also present in this region are rebel organizations, which are more or less supported by Turkey, and other jihadist factions, such as Khuras al-Din.

In March 2020, Russia and Turkey concluded a ceasefire agreement covering Idlib and neighboring areas. The agreement is generally being followed, despite sporadic attacks by both sides, including Russian airstrikes.

Syria’s complex war over the past eleven years, involving foreign forces and jihadist groups, has claimed the lives of at least half a million people, destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure and made millions internally displaced and refugees.

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