ISIS WAR ON TRUFFLE HUNTERS
Islamic State group kills 15 truffle hunters in Syria: monitor
Issued on: 24/03/2023 -
Between February and April, hundreds of impoverished Syrians search for valuble truffles in Syria: here a merchant presents desert truffles in Hama in March 6, 2023
Beirut (AFP) – The Islamic State group killed 15 people foraging for desert truffles in conflict-ravaged central Syria by cutting their throats, while 40 others are missing, a war monitor said Friday.
Since February, at least 150 people -- most of them civilians -- have been killed by IS attacks targeting truffle hunters or by landmines left by the extremists, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Syria's desert truffles fetch high prices in a country battered by 12 years of war and a crushing economic crisis.
"At least 15 people, including seven civilians and eight local pro-regime fighters, were killed by IS fighters who slit their throats while they were collecting truffles on Thursday," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Forty others are missing following the attack in Hama province, he added.
Syrian state media did not immediately report the incident.
Between February and April each year, hundreds of impoverished Syrians search for truffles in the vast Syrian Desert, or Badia -- a known hideout for jihadists that is also littered with landmines.
Prized fungus
The monitor said that IS was taking advantage of the annual harvest of the desert fungus delicacy to carry out attacks in remote locations.
Merchants present their desert truffles at a market in the city of Hama in Syria on March 6, 2023: a kilo can sell for up to $25 in a country where the average monthly wage is around $18
Foragers risk their lives to collect the delicacies, despite repeated warnings about landmines and IS fighters.
The Syrian Desert is renowned for producing some of the best quality truffles in the world.
The prized fungus can sell for up to $25 per kilo ($11 per pound) depending on size and grade -- in a country where the average monthly wage is around $18.
Earlier this month, IS fighters killed three truffle hunters and kidnapped at least 26 others in northern Syria, according to the monitor, which relies on a vast network of sources inside Syria.
That attack happened near positions held by pro-Iran forces, said the Britain-based Observatory.
In February, IS fighters on motorcycles opened fire on truffle hunters, killing at least 68 people, the war monitor said at the time.
After IS lost their last scraps of territory in March 2019 following a military onslaught backed by a US-led coalition, IS remnants in Syria mostly retreated to hideouts in the desert.
They have since used such hideouts to ambush civilians, Kurdish-led forces, Syrian government troops and pro-Iranian fighters, while also mounting attacks in neighbouring Iraq.
Syria's war has claimed the lives of around half a million people and displaced millions since it erupted in March 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
© 2023 AFP
Islamic State group kills 15 truffle hunters in Syria: monitor
Issued on: 24/03/2023 -
Between February and April, hundreds of impoverished Syrians search for valuble truffles in Syria: here a merchant presents desert truffles in Hama in March 6, 2023Beirut (AFP) – The Islamic State group killed 15 people foraging for desert truffles in conflict-ravaged central Syria by cutting their throats, while 40 others are missing, a war monitor said Friday.
Since February, at least 150 people -- most of them civilians -- have been killed by IS attacks targeting truffle hunters or by landmines left by the extremists, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Syria's desert truffles fetch high prices in a country battered by 12 years of war and a crushing economic crisis.
"At least 15 people, including seven civilians and eight local pro-regime fighters, were killed by IS fighters who slit their throats while they were collecting truffles on Thursday," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Forty others are missing following the attack in Hama province, he added.
Syrian state media did not immediately report the incident.
Between February and April each year, hundreds of impoverished Syrians search for truffles in the vast Syrian Desert, or Badia -- a known hideout for jihadists that is also littered with landmines.
Prized fungus
The monitor said that IS was taking advantage of the annual harvest of the desert fungus delicacy to carry out attacks in remote locations.
Merchants present their desert truffles at a market in the city of Hama in Syria on March 6, 2023: a kilo can sell for up to $25 in a country where the average monthly wage is around $18 Foragers risk their lives to collect the delicacies, despite repeated warnings about landmines and IS fighters.
The Syrian Desert is renowned for producing some of the best quality truffles in the world.
The prized fungus can sell for up to $25 per kilo ($11 per pound) depending on size and grade -- in a country where the average monthly wage is around $18.
Earlier this month, IS fighters killed three truffle hunters and kidnapped at least 26 others in northern Syria, according to the monitor, which relies on a vast network of sources inside Syria.
That attack happened near positions held by pro-Iran forces, said the Britain-based Observatory.
In February, IS fighters on motorcycles opened fire on truffle hunters, killing at least 68 people, the war monitor said at the time.
After IS lost their last scraps of territory in March 2019 following a military onslaught backed by a US-led coalition, IS remnants in Syria mostly retreated to hideouts in the desert.
They have since used such hideouts to ambush civilians, Kurdish-led forces, Syrian government troops and pro-Iranian fighters, while also mounting attacks in neighbouring Iraq.
Syria's war has claimed the lives of around half a million people and displaced millions since it erupted in March 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
© 2023 AFP
PHOTOS © LOUAI BESHARA / AFP/File
Issued on: 24/03/2023
An MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) seen at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. © Isaac Brekken,
Text by: NEWS WIRES
US airstrikes killed eight pro-Iran fighters in eastern Syria following a drone attack that killed one American contractor and wounded five US service personnel, a war monitor said Friday.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that at the direction of President Joe Biden, he had authorised “precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
The IRGC is a wing of the Iranian military and is blacklisted as a terrorist group by the United States.
“The airstrikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against Coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC,” Austin added.
A Department of Defense statement said the US contractor had been killed and the others wounded “after a one-way unmanned aerial vehicle struck a maintenance facility on a Coalition base near Hasakeh in northeast Syria”.
Another US contractor was also injured in the UAV attack, the Pentagon said, adding that the US intelligence community “assess the UAV to be of Iranian origin”.
On Friday, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor with a wide network of sources on the ground in the war-torn country, said eight people had been killed by US strikes.
“US strikes targeted a weapons depots inside Deir Ezzor city, killing six pro-Iran fighters, and two other fighters were killed by strikes targeting the desert of Mayadine and near Albu Kamal,” he said.
‘Always respond’
Hundreds of US troops are in Syria as part of a coalition fighting against remnants of the Islamic State (IS) group and have frequently been targeted in attacks by militia groups.
The US troops support the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army in the area, which led the battle that dislodged the IS group from the last scraps of their Syrian territory in 2019.
Two of the US service members wounded on Thursday were treated on-site, while the three other troops and one US contractor were medically evacuated to Iraq, the Pentagon said.
“We will always take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing,” said General Michael Kurilla, commander of US Central Command.
When the strikes were announced, Biden had already travelled to Canada, where he is set to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Last August, Biden ordered similar retaliatory strikes in the oil-rich Syrian province of Deir Ezzor after several drones targeted a coalition outpost, without causing any casualties.
That attack came the same day that Iranian state media announced a Revolutionary Guard general had been killed days earlier while “on a mission in Syria as a military adviser”.
Iran says it has deployed its forces in Syria at the invitation of Damascus and only as advisers.
(AFP)
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