BEIRUT: At least 11 people, mostly civilians, were killed in a central Syria attack blamed on the Islamic State group, reports AFP.
The IS group attacked about 75 people on Saturday while they were collecting truffles in the Palmyra area, in the eastern countryside of Homs, Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Syria's state news agency SANA reported the attack but gave a lower death toll, saying IS terrorists fired machine guns and killed four civilians, including a woman.
Ten others were wounded in the attack, some critically, the news agency added.
After the jihadists lost their last scraps of territory following a military onslaught backed by a US-led coalition in March 2019, IS remnants in Syria mostly retreated into desert hideouts in the country's east.
They have since used such hideouts to ambush Kurdish-led forces and Syrian government troops while continuing to mount attacks in Iraq.
Many people, including women and children, have been targeted in recent years while truffle hunting in central, northeastern and eastern areas of Syria.
Syrian and Russian helicopters continue to launch air strikes targeting IS desert hideouts.
The Syrian conflict, which was triggered by the suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations, has claimed around 500,000 lives and displaced around half the country's pre-war population.
