Suspected Islamic State (ISIS) group terrorists killed at least 31 people foraging for truffles in Syria on Sunday, a monitor said, according to AFP.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the killing of four shepherds by ISIS jihadists in a separate incident, and the abduction of two others.
“A total of 31 people, including 12 pro-regime fighters, were killed while collecting truffles in the desert east of (the central city) Hama,” the Observatory said, giving a new toll.
Earlier it reported the death of at least 26 people, a figure confirmed by the official Syrian news agency SANA.
Syria’s desert truffles fetch high prices in a country battered by 12 years of war and a crushing economic crisis.
Authorities frequently warn against the high-risk practice, but between February and April each year, hundreds of impoverished Syrians search for truffles in the vast Syrian desert.
Since February, more than 230 people — most of them civilians — have been killed in ISIS attacks targeting truffle hunters or by landmines left by the extremists, according to the Observatory.
ISIS overran large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a “caliphate” in land it controlled.
Several military offensives, including those backed by the US-led international coalition, have since seen ISIS lose most areas it once controlled, including the loss of their de facto capital in Raqqa, Syria.
However, ISIS sleeper calls remain in the area continue to carry out deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq. US raids in the area regularly target ISIS members and leaders.
In February, an ISIS group leader was killed and four US troops wounded in a US helicopter raid on northeast Syria.
A month earlier, American forces captured two ISIS members during an air and ground assault in eastern Syria.
In December, American forces killed two ISIS terrorists in eastern Syria in a helicopter raid. One of the two targeted ISIS leaders, Anas, was described as an “ISIS Syria Province official” involved in plotting attacks in eastern Syria.
