Eleven people, mostly civilians, were killed on Saturday in an attack attributed to the Islamic State (IS) group in central Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) announced on Sunday. The jihadist group “attacked around 75 people on Saturday while they were picking truffles in the Palmyra region, in the countryside near Homs”, said the UK-based NGO, which has an extensive network of sources in Syria.
The attack killed “ten civilians, including a woman, and a member of the Syrian regime forces”, while other people are still missing, according to the same source. Syrian state media also reported on the attack, but with a lighter toll. IS “terrorists” fired “machine guns” and killed four civilians, including a woman, the official Sana news agency reported. She added that ten people were injured in the attack, some of them “seriously”.
IS has stepped up deadly attacks in recent months despite the loss of its strongholds in Syria and the blows inflicted by the international anti-jihadist coalition led by the United States. According to the OSDH, the IS takes advantage of the fact that inhabitants of remote rural areas venture to pick up truffles in order to attack them. In April 2021, at least 19 people, mostly civilians, were abducted by the jihadist group in a province in the center of the country while they were looking for truffles.