At least 18 truffle collectors killed in Syria by suspected ISIS militants

Militants set fire to 11 vehicles during the attack, which took place in a desert near the town of Kobajeb in Deir Ezzor province

• 

  A merchant offers a customer desert truffles at a market in the city of Hama in west-central Syria. All photos by AFP

• 

  A platter of desert truffles for sale at the Hama market

• 

  Sorting desert truffles at the market

• 

  A merchant presents desert truffles at the Hama market. The prized fungi are known as 'yellow gold'

• 

  Stallholders sort desert truffles at the Hama market. They are collected between February and April

• 

  Truffles for sale in Hama. Each season, hundreds of impoverished Syrians search for the yellow gold in the vast Badia Desert region

• 

  Truffle hunting is a dangerous pursuit, as the Badia Desert is a hideout for extremists and is littered with landmines

• 

  In the 2023 season, more than 130 truffle hunters have been killed, mostly by extremists and mines, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor

• 

  Stallholders sort their desert truffle stock at the market in Hama, west-central Syria

At least 18 people were killed when suspected ISIS militants attacked villagers collecting truffles in eastern Syria on Wednesday, a rights monitor and pro-government media said.

At least four members of the government-allied National Defence Forces among those killed by machine-guns in the attack, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, citing “reliable sources”.

The Observatory said militants had set fire to 11 vehicles during the attack, which took place in a desert near the town of Kobajeb, in Deir Ezzor province, bordering Iraq.

ISIS militants have regularly attacked truffle hunters in remote areas – often using mines. Last April, at least 31 people, including pro-regime fighters, were killed in an attack on truffle collectors near the west-central Syrian city of Hama, according to the Observatory.

Truffles are a high-profit commodity that can sell for anywhere between $5-25, according to local media outlets, depending on their quality and size.

But finding them is a high-risk endeavour in Syria, which is now nearly in its 13th year of war and where 90 per cent of the population is living below the poverty line.

The war has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of Syria's prewar population of 23 million, according to UN figures.