DAMASCUS: The Islamic State (IS) group killed 15 hunters foraging for desert truffles in conflict-ravaged Syria by cutting their throats, while forty others are missing, a war monitor said on Friday.
Syria’s desert truffles fetch high rates in a country battered by twelve years of war and a devastating economic crisis.
According to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, since February, at least 150 people have been killed by the group’s attacks targeting truffle hunters or by landmines left by the extremists.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said that at least fifteen people, including 7 civilians and 8 local pro-regime fighters, were killed by the group’s fighters who cut their throats while they were collecting truffles on Thursday.
Missing hunters
He added that 40 others are missing following the attack in Hama province.
From February to April each year, hundreds of poor Syrians search for truffles in the large Syrian Desert, or Badia — a known hideout for terrorists that is also littered with landmines.
Despite repeated warnings about IS fighters and landmines, foragers risk their lives to get the delicacies.
