CEP Research Analyst Gregory Waters interviewed: "The important thing here, I think, is that it's not necessarily about the truffles. It's that civilians in this area have been targeted by ISIS for many years, both during and outside of truffle hunting season. They're kind of trapped in between this battle taking place since 2018 between ISIS fighters and the Syrian regime, ever since the Syrian regime retook territorial control in central Syria. The truffle hunting brings civilians deep into the remote areas of central Syria, where the risk of them stumbling upon an ISIS camp or a convoy of ISIS fighters is really high. So when they come out looking for truffles, ISIS goes and murders them to basically stop them from potentially finding out where ISIS members are and informing the regime."