SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — At least 53 civilians were killed by ISIS militants in Syria’s Homs province on Friday, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). ISIS has not yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
The militants attacked the civilians while they were collecting truffles in the Al-Dabyat area of southern Al-Sokhna countryside in the Homs desert.
Along with the civilians, seven ISIS militants, including an officer, were killed.
According to a survivor who spoke to a reporter of the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), ISIS militants set fire to the vehicles of the citizens present at the site.
“The bodies of 53 martyrs arrived at the hospital, where it was found after examining them that the death was caused by gunshots to the head”, the director of the General Authority of Palmyra National Hospital, Dr. Walid Odeh, stated in a statement to SANA reporter.
On February 12, ISIS militants kidnapped 25 people while they were collecting truffle in Palmyra area in eastern Homs desert, but released earlier on Friday. However, the fate of dozens of civilians remains unclear.
The attack is the latest in a series of violent incidents that have rocked Syria in recent years, highlighting the ongoing threat posed by ISIS and other extremist groups in the region.
