An armed group affiliated with Iranian-backed militias attacked a group of agricultural workers in an area near Al-Sukhna in eastern rural Homs on Tuesday (June 6), killing four of them and burning agricultural machinery.

Activists said that four civilians who were working harvesting crops were killed in the attack by the Iranian militia-affiliated gunmen, adding that the victims came from the towns of Talbiseh and Gharnata in the north of the governorate.

Iran's militias have repeatedly carried out attacks of this nature in the area, wounding and killing civilian agricultural workers harvesting crops and destroying their vehicles, along with harvesting equipment.

Local sources told the Shaam News Network (SNN) that the rural areas in the region have seen a remarkable escalation in killings, kidnappings, and displacement resulting from the increase in incidents of this nature , with survivors and activists identifying the assailants as being members or associates of the Iranian militias stationed in the rural areas, who are perpetrating these crimes for sectarian motives.

SNN reports that the Syrian desert areas and the entire eastern countryside of the governorates of Homs, Hama, Deir ez-Zor and Aleppo have turned into the scene of an ongoing crime, with killings and kidnappings now routine, amid a state of fear and panic afflicting the population of nearby areas, especially farmers and livestock breeders, in an atmosphere of total lawlessness.