World News | Report: IS mines kill at least 6 civilians in Syria

BEIRUT, April 9 (AP) — At least six people were killed in a deadly mine explosion in Syria Sunday, state media reported.

The SANA news agency said the explosion hit civilians foraging for truffles in the countryside, and blamed the incident on landmines planted by the Islamic State group in the southern province of Deir ez-Zor.

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The area was once a stronghold of militants.

A day earlier, SANA reported that six people had been killed by anti-tank mines left by IS in the desert in the eastern countryside of Homs, also on their way to find truffles.

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, put the death toll at seven on Sunday.

The incident brings to 137 the number of civilians reported killed this year by mines and other explosive remnants of war, including 30 children, monitors said.

Truffles are a seasonal delicacy that can command high prices. Because truffle hunters work in droves in remote areas, IS militants have repeatedly preyed on them, emerging from the desert to kidnap them, killing some and extorting others for money.

In February, IS sleeper cells attacked workers collecting truffles near the central town of Sokhna, killing at least 53 people, mostly workers but also some members of Syrian government security forces. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)