Ten people picking desert truffles were killed and 12 others injured on Monday in Syria when anti-personnel mines planted by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group exploded, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported.

Citizens were foraging for truffles in Hama province “when a landmine planted by Daesh terrorists exploded, killing nine civilians and injuring two others,” according to the agency.

A second mine exploded a short time later in the same area, according to SANA, killing one person and injuring ten others.

The desert truffle, the sand truffle, is generally harvested from February to April, as it commands an extremely high price: a kilogram of truffles is sold in Damascus for five to ten dollars, depending on the quality, in a country where the average wage is 18 dollars a month, due to the collapse of the economy amid war and sanctions.

The truffles of the Syrian desert are among the best in the world.

Yesterday’s tragedy unfolded almost ten days after an attack attributed to IS that killed 68 civilians who were also looking for truffles in the eastern part of Homs province, according to the NGO Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

IS had seized vast swaths of Syria in 2014, including eastern Hama province, before its “caliphate” collapsed under attack from multiple directions.

In February, 112 people, including 92 civilians, were killed trying to collect truffles, either in attacks by IS members or due to mine explosions planted by the jihadist organization.

IS has multiplied its deadly attacks in the country in recent months, despite losing all its strongholds in Syria and despite the blows it received from the forces of both Damascus and Moscow, as well as the anti-jihadist coalition led by the US.

Nearly 10.2 million Syrians live in areas where IEDs are still littered; IED explosions killed an estimated 15,000 people from 2015 to 2022, according to the UN.

Mines and IEDs are not mapped by warring parties; they are placed in the middle of crops or populated areas.

Almost daily, the Syrian authorities announce controlled explosions to destroy improvised explosive devices, unexploded ordnance and anti-personnel mines located across the territory.

Syria has been bleeding since 2011 with an extremely complicated war which has left behind around half a million dead and displaced millions of residents.