Separately, Turkey staged new raids on the Kurdish-controlled northeast, targeting energy infrastructure, with the death toll rising to 15 over two days, Kurdish officials said.
In one of the bloodiest single attacks on the army since Syria's war began in 2011, Thursday's assault came just after the ceremony attended by officers and their families, killing and wounding both military personnel and civilians.
State media said Friday 89 had died, including 31 women and five children, with 277 others wounded.
Dozens of distraught relatives gathered outside the Homs military hospital early Friday, an AFP correspondent said.
One woman was overwhelmed with grief at the loss of her son.
"Do not go, my beloved," she cried. "This sleep does not befit you."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, reported a heavier toll of 123 dead, including 54 civilians, 39 of them women and children. It said at least 150 were wounded.
In a rare move since the war began, the government declared three days of mourning from Friday, with flags flying at half-mast.
Defence Minister Ali Mahmoud Abbas attended the first funerals for around 30 people, both military and civilians.
Military personnel saluted as caskets draped in Syrian flags were carried one by one to ambulances for transportation for burial.
Syria's conflict has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions since 2011, spiralling into a devastating war involving foreign armies, militias and jihadists.
- Panic and chaos -
"Martyrdom, dignity and national pride come at a great cost," Abbas told victims' families, according to a statement broadcast on state television.
The blood of those who died "is dear, but the nation is dearer", he added.
Abbas attended the graduation ceremony but left just minutes before the attack, an eyewitness and the Observatory said.
At the military hospital, Khawlah, 33, was searching among the coffins for her brother.
"Amjad did not die, I died," she told AFP, grief-stricken.
No group has claimed responsibility, but the Syrian army accused "armed terrorist organisations" for the attack with "explosive-laden drones", vowing to "respond with full force".
The military on Thursday began bombing opposition-held areas in the northwest in apparent retaliation.
The Observatory said Friday 19 civilians had been killed, including four on Friday evening in the centre of Idlib city.
It added that warplanes of government ally Russia continued air strikes late Friday in the Idlib area, after earlier leaving a child dead.
An AFP correspondent at a hospital in the city said staff appeared overwhelmed by the influx of wounded.
Aron Lund of the Century International think tank said President Bashar al-Assad and other family members trained at the Homs academy, meaning the attack "hits close to home" and "the very strong official reactions need to be seen in that context".
Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the attack, expressed his condolences to Assad, and pledged "to keep up our close cooperation" against "terrorism", the Kremlin said.
- Turkish strikes -
Homs province was an opposition stronghold early in Syria's conflict but has been in government hands for several years.
Swathes of Idlib province and areas bordering Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces are controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria branch.
HTS and the Islamic State jihadist group have used drones to attack government-held areas and Syrian and Russian military targets, according to the Observatory.
Thursday's attack came as Turkey began strikes in northeast Syria, hitting military and civilian targets including energy infrastructure, according to officials in the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration that controls the area.
Ankara had threatened retaliation for a bomb attack Sunday in the capital that wounded two security officers and was claimed by a branch of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Turkey and its Western allies view as a terrorist organisation.
The US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said Friday 15 people had been killed in the northeast Syria strikes over two days, including eight civilians.
Turkey views the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) that dominate the SDF as an offshoot of PKK.
On Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call that "Turkey's counter-terrorism operations in Iraq and Syria will continue with determination", a Turkish diplomatic source said.
His comment came a day after the Pentagon said US warplanes shot down a Turkish drone deemed a threat to American forces in Syria.
Turkey's defence ministry said Friday that a soldier had died following a rocket attack on a Turkish military base in the northern Syrian town of Dabiq.
What we know about the Syrian military academy attack
Beirut (AFP) Oct 6, 2023 -
A drone attack on a military academy that Damascus has blamed on "terrorist organisations" has raised major questions, including how such a strike could have happened in a regime-controlled area.
The assault in the city of Homs targeted a graduation ceremony and killed 89 people including personnel and civilians, according to the government. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reported more than 120 dead.
- What happened? -
The drone attack happened at the end of the ceremony, as officers and their families were celebrating.
"People were smiling and taking photos. Suddenly, there was an explosion. We didn't know what happened," said Sleiman Assaf, 69, who had come to see his nephew graduate.
"People started to run like crazy, bodies were lying on the ground. Then I passed out. I woke up in hospital, where I was surrounded by people crying," he told AFP, as he waited for his nephew's funeral on Friday.
Videos circulating on social media have showed panic and chaos during the attack, with people falling to the ground and others pleading for help.
Defence Minister Ali Mahmoud Abbas was at the ceremony but left just minutes before the attack, an eyewitness and the Observatory said.
- Who launched the attack? -
No group has claimed responsibility for the assault, but Syrian authorities have blamed "armed terrorist organisations supported by known international actors", without elaborating.
The army has since bombed Syria's northwestern Idlib area, home to the country's last bastion of armed opposition.
Allied Russian forces also carried out air strikes Friday on the Idlib region, which is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a jihadist group led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate.
The Observatory said that at least 16 civilians have been killed so far.
Jihadist groups in the area have used drones against Syrian forces and their Russian allies before, but never with such bloody results.
Analyst Aron Lund of the Century International think tank said details were still too thin to speculate about the perpetrators.
"We've seen a lot of drone attacks coming out of Idlib in the past, including to target Russian aircraft at the Hmeimim base on the coast, but the details about who operated those drones were always kind of murky," he said.
"Is it (Hayat) Tahrir al-Sham, is it Turkey, a combination of both?" he asked.
The Islamic State group was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019, but its remnants launch assaults from desert hideouts, including in Homs province.
Syria's opposition in exile has suggested the government itself was responsible, but Lund dismissed the idea, saying that "it strains credibility to think the regime would wipe out such a big cohort of its own officers".
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman would not be drawn on who might have been behind the attack, but said the drones could have been "assembled in Homs and launched from a location close" to the academy.
This could explain why they "evaded radars and air defence systems", he added.
- Why this target? -
Homs was a rebel bastion after the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime broke out in 2011, spiralling into a complex war that drew in foreign armies and jihadists.
Government forces retook the city in 2017 and the province is now far from the front lines.
"The military is the backbone of Syria's regime, and the academy in Homs is where its officers are trained, ever since the creation of the Syrian state," said Lund.
Assad, his brother Maher, their late father Hafez al-Assad who took power in a 1970 coup, Syria's generals and other leading figures all passed through its doors, he added.
"Some of the people killed were undoubtedly from second or third generation military families," Lund said.
"This is home turf, it hits close to home for Syria's power elite, and I think the very strong official reactions need to be seen in that context," he added.
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