CEP Research Analyst Gregory Waters writes: "While recent massacres of civilians in central Syria have refocused some international attention on the desert region, known as the Badia, the renewed widespread battles between militants and regime security forces that have occurred in parallel to these attacks have gone unnoticed. The most significant of these was the recent battle for the village of al-Kawm between ISIS cells and Syrian military units led by the Russian private military company Wagner Group. The fighting has, as of the time of this writing, ended in a stalemate, with ISIS militants retaining control of the mountains overlooking the village."

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."