Syria: Following Islamic State attack, death toll "climbs to 68"

 An activist group said on Saturday that the death toll from an incident in Syria that has been linked to the Islamic State (IS) group has increased to 68, making it the bloodiest attack in more than a year.

The attack claimed the lives of 61 civilians in all, as well as seven troops, according to Rami Abdurrahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The incident was carried out on Friday, according to the UK-based Observatory, which has a network of informants inside Syria. Suspects on motorcycles opened fire on truffle hunters.

The observer claimed that IS was using the annual harvest of the delectable desert fungus, which typically lasts from February to April, to carry out attacks in isolated areas.

According to the monitor, the incident brings the total number of people killed in suspected IS attacks in the Syrian desert to 90 since February 10th.

Immediately after the attack, the IS group did not declare it on its channels.

Following the attack on Friday in the desert east of Homs, southwest of the village of Al-Sokhna, Syrian state television reported 53 fatalities.

Since they attacked a prison in the Kurdish-controlled northeastern city of Hasakeh in an effort to rescue fellow members in January of last year, this was IS's worst strike.

Fighting broke out inside the city, which resulted in the deaths of 268 fighters and 105 individuals, largely civilians.

Following a military assault supported by a US-led coalition in March 2019, when IS lost their last pockets of territory, the group's Syrian remnants largely withdrew to desert hideouts.

Since then, they have continued to launch strikes in neighbouring Iraq while using similar hiding places to ambush forces headed by the Kurds and soldiers from the Syrian government.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the US Central Command reported that an explosion during an operation that killed a senior IS leader in Syria had injured four American military personnel.

According to the statement, the US military personnel and a service dog were receiving medical care at an American hospital in Iraq when the IS leader, Hamza al-Homsi, was assassinated.