According to activists, the jihadist militia Islamic State (IS) killed at least 30 people in two attacks in Syria.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday, IS members killed 26 people in an attack near the central Syrian city of Hama, including “civilians and at least ten government supporters”. In another attack in Deir Essor in the east of the country, IS supporters killed four shepherds and stole their sheep.
The group attacked near Hama was reportedly looking for truffles in the desert. Most recently, IS had repeatedly attacked collectors of desert truffles there. Despite urgent warnings from the authorities, hundreds of impoverished Syrians continue to make a risky living in the vast desert.
ISIS attacks have killed more than 230 people since February
The Syrian desert truffles to be collected between February and April are considered particularly tasty and fetch high prices in the civil war country Syria – depending on size and quality up to 25 dollars per kilo (around 23 euros). The average monthly income in Syria, which has been hit hard by the civil war that has been going on since 2011 and Western sanctions against the government of ruler Bashar al-Assad, is $18.
According to the Observatory, more than 230 people have been killed in IS attacks since February. The UK-based organization gets its information from a network in Syria. Your information can hardly be verified by an independent party.
In 2014, IS took control of large parts of Syria and Iraq, but gradually lost these areas again. After a US-led coalition drove IS out of the last bastions in Syria in March 2019, most remaining IS fighters retreated to the Syrian desert. (AFP)
