As a result, 41 people were killed, including 24 civilians. Syriain two attacks attributed to Islamic stateagainst shepherds and peasants who collected desert truffles.

A jihadist group “killed 36 people while picking truffles in the desert in eastern Hama,” the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Rami Abdel Rahman. 17 of the victims were pro-government fighters. The official news agency Sana reported 26 dead.

In the desert of eastern Syria, in his province Deir ez-ZorThe observatory said men on motorcycles, believed to be IS members, opened fire and killed five shepherds in order to steal their livestock.

Sana confirmed this figure, adding that the jihadists also killed 250 sheep. Two more shepherds were kidnapped.

The bodies of two civilians were found in the same province. According to the Observatory, a few days earlier they were killed by IS militants while harvesting desert truffles.

Since the beginning of February, more than 240 people, most of them civilians, have been killed while harvesting truffles, which are sold at a very high price. Some of them were attacked by jihadists, others were killed by mine explosions.

AFP