Monitoring Desk
DAMASCUS: Suspected Islamic State (IS) group militants on Saturday killed three truffle hunters and kidnapped 26 others in northern Syria, said a war monitor, in the latest attack during the year’s harvest season.
“Armed men likely affiliated with Islamic State cells targeted truffle hunters” in the desert southeast of Aleppo, “killing three people by cutting their throats and kidnapping 26 others, including women,” said the Syrian Human Rights Observatory.
The attack on the civilians took place near positions held by pro-Iran forces, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a vast network of sources in Syria.
Syria’s state media did not immediately report the incident.
Each year, between February and April, hundreds of Syrians search for truffles in the vast Syrian Desert — a known hideout for militants that is also littered with landmines.
Since February, 139 people, including 120 civilians, have been killed by Islamic State attacks targeting truffle hunters, according to the Observatory.
IS militants often target civilians in Syria
After the militants lost their last scraps of territory in March 2019 following a military operation backed by a US-led coalition, the Islamic State remnants in Syria mainly retreated to hideouts in the vast Desert.
They have since used such hideouts to attack civilians, Kurdish-led forces, Syrian government troops, and pro-Iranian fighters while mounting attacks in neighbouring Iraq.
Syrian desert truffles attract high prices in a country battered by 12 years long war and a crushing economic crisis.
Foragers risk their lives to collect the truffles despite repeated warnings about landmines and IS fighters.
