UNITED NATIONS, October 2 (RIA Novosti) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned Wednesday’s terrorist attacks in the Syrian city of Homs, which killed 39, most of them children, the UN press service said Thursday.
“The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest terms today’s bomb attacks in Homs which, initial reports indicate, killed 39 people, including 30 schoolchildren between the ages of six and nine. He regards this as an act of the utmost depravity,” the press release reads.
As follows from the statement, Ban has called on the warring sides of the Syrian conflict to stop “indiscriminate use of any weapons.” He also urged the forces in Syria as well as the international community to “redouble their efforts to bring this horrific conflict to an end and help reach a long-overdue political solution.”
According to the Syrian media, on Wednesday, a car bomb blew up near a school in Homs, as children and their parents were leaving the building. A few minutes after, a suicide bomber carried out an explosion near a hospital in the same district.
Syrian government forces have been fighting various rebel and extremist groups since 2011. According to the United Nations, the war has claimed more than 191,000 lives while more than three million Syrians have become refugees.