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2023-02-18 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Homs: Islamic State accused of killing truffle hunters in Syria
[BBC] At least 53 people have been killed by the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
jihadist hard boy group in Syria, state media reports.

The group were reportedly searching for desert truffles when they were targeted in the province of Homs.

The director of Palmyra hospital said 46 civilians and seven soldiers were killed. The bodies of all victims had gunshot wounds to the head, state news agency SANA reported.

The jihadist group did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) - which relies on a wide network of sources on the ground in Syria - said the attack was carried out by jihadists on cycle of violences who opened fire on the truffle hunters.

The group has targeted truffle hunters before in Syria.

Sixteen people, mostly civilians, were killed last Saturday in a similar attack targeting foragers in the same area, the SOHR said.
Update from Rudaw at 2:25 ET:
Five others were injured by shrapnel and are receiving medical treatment.

A survivor told SANA that the militants torched their vehicles at the site of the attack.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 46 civilians are dead and seven ISIS militants, including one officer, were killed in the attack.

The Observatory also reported that in a similar attack on truffle hunters, more than 75 people were kidnapped by ISIS on February 12. Sixteen of them have been executed, including a woman and a member of the Syrian army. The fate of the rest remains unknown.
More from NPA Syria:
The victims were picking truffles in the desert at the time of the sudden attack. “They were brutally murdered, whereas the government forces died during the clash with the ISIS militants,” the source noted.

Lately, the Syrian Desert has been witnessing daily attacks by ISIS sleeper cells against people, government facilities and headquarters, and Iranian military positions despite repeated combing operations by the government forces.

Iranian-backed militias control large areas of the Syrian Desert and the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor, after expulsion of the ISIS from the area in 2017.
Posted by trailing wife 2023-02-18 01:12|| || Front Page|| [11137 views ]  Top
 File under: Islamic State 

#1 "Don't mind us! We're just innocent truffle hunters. Here in the desert."

Desert truffles sounds like the worst cover ever, but it is apparently a thing:
Terfeziaceae
Posted by SteveS 2023-02-18 09:22||   2023-02-18 09:22|| Front Page Top

#2 Nobody knows the truffles I've seen.
Posted by Deacon Blues 2023-02-18 11:12||   2023-02-18 11:12|| Front Page Top

#3 What's Islamicly wrong with hunting truffles? Are they a banned food like pigs?
Posted by 3dc 2023-02-18 12:20||   2023-02-18 12:20|| Front Page Top

#4 ^ They grow in "strategically sensitive areas," and don't rule out if they are worth anything, why not kill the people they are stealing from?
Posted by M. Murcek 2023-02-18 12:28||   2023-02-18 12:28|| Front Page Top

#5 We periodically see stories like this from Iraq, too. Small groups of unarmed civilians wandering the landscape — just too tempting for professional murderers to let pass, I guess.
Posted by trailing wife 2023-02-18 12:43||   2023-02-18 12:43|| Front Page Top

#6 Mrs. Ret. was just talking about a truffle hunt as potentially being an excursion on an upcoming cruise. And she was also talking about me (not us) upping my life insurance. Gears grinding…..
Posted by USN, Ret. 2023-02-18 13:38||   2023-02-18 13:38|| Front Page Top

#7 /\ You've probably got SBP, you should be covered pretty well. I took the minimum amount and bought a couple of insurance policies. Too old too buy more insurance now. The cost is prohibitive. Mrs. Besoeker obviously wasn't a very good judge of men. I've told her to do better next time, and be sure to do the appropriate prenups.


Posted by Besoeker 2023-02-18 16:59||   2023-02-18 16:59|| Front Page Top

#8 *next time*
Posted by Frank G 2023-02-18 18:40||   2023-02-18 18:40|| Front Page Top

09:43 Mullah Richard
09:27 Warthog
09:11 Mercutio
09:07 AlmostAnonymous5839
08:52 Matt
08:24 Matt
08:20 SteveS
07:43 Procopius2k
07:42 BrerRabbit
07:42 Procopius2k
07:39 Procopius2k
07:36 Procopius2k
07:35 Procopius2k
07:34 trailing wife
07:31 Procopius2k
07:30 NN2N1
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07:18 trailing wife
07:14 Richard Aubrey
07:10 NN2N1
07:09 Besoeker
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