Nine civilians were killed and two injured when an anti-personnel mine exploded this Monday in the central Syrian desert, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported.
“In the village of Al-Mustariha, east of Salamiyah (in the province of Hama, in the center), nine citizens were killed, and two more were injured as a result of a mine explosion on which terrorists (the Islamic State jihadist movement) threw,” the agency said. adding that the victims were traveling by bus.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) – a British NGO with an extensive network of sources in Syria – said the mine exploded as the victims were moving in search of truffles.
The incident comes nearly 10 days after the attack, attributed to the Islamic State, that killed 68 people, including among a group of people picking truffles, according to the OSDH.
According to this agency, the Islamic State is using the fact that people from remote rural areas go to the desert to collect truffles to attack them.
Desert or sand truffles are usually harvested between February and April and are sold at high prices.
According to the UN, nearly 10.2 million Syrians live in areas contaminated by explosive devices, which killed about 15,000 people between 2015 and 2022.
Fighting mines is a difficult task in a country that has been in conflict since 2011, which has already killed half a million people and displaced several million people from their homes.
Almost daily, the Syrian authorities announce controlled explosions to destroy explosive devices, ammunition and other anti-personnel mines left on the territory.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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