Damascus [Syria]: At least 30 Syrian military personnel and pro-government fighters were killed in an explosion at a military airbase in central Syria on Saturday, a war monitor has reported.
The soldiers were killed by an explosion that rocked the Shayrat airbase in the central province of Homs when they were moving out-of-date munition, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the state news agency SANA.
The toll could rise due to the number of critically wounded soldiers.
The official report said the explosion is a result of a technical error.
The Shayrat airbase has been crucial for the Syrian army during the more than eight-year war and it had been struck by the United States in 2017 in response to a suspected chemical attack in the town of Khan Shaykhun in the Idlib Province in northwestern Syria.