IS attack in central Syria kills 11

At least 11 people, mostly civilians, were killed in a central Syria attack blamed on the Islamic State group, a war monitor said yesterday. The IS group "attacked about 75 people on Saturday while they were collecting truffles in the Palmyra area, in the eastern countryside of Homs", the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The attack killed "10 civilians, including a woman, and a member of the (Syrian) regime forces," it said, adding that others remain missing. 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.