State news agency SANA said that the attack was carried out by members of the Islamic State group.
Despite their defeat in Syria in March 2019, the militant group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks both in Syria and Iraq where they once held territories and declared a “caliphate.”
Since the truffle hunters work in large groups in remote areas, IS militants have repeatedly preyed on them, emerging from the desert to abduct them, kill some and ransom others for money.
In February, IS sleeper cells attacked workers collecting truffles near the central town of Sukhna, killing at least 53 people, mostly workers but also some Syrian government security forces.
Earlier this month, six people were killed by a land mine planted by the Islamic State group in the southern Deir Ez-Zor province also while foraging for truffles, according to state-run news agency SANA.