US forces loot more Syrian oil

Courtesy: The Cradle Co

DAMASCUS: US occupation troops in Syria’s northeastern Jazira region looted 60 tankers of crude oil and transported it through an illegal border crossing into its military bases in Iraq, Syrian state media reported on 4 February. 

“The American occupation continued its plundering of Syrian oil wealth, transferring it from the areas it occupies in the Hasakah countryside to its bases in Iraqi territory through illegal crossings,” SANA news outlet reported. 

Local sources in the Yarubiyah countryside told SANA’s correspondent that “an American occupation convoy of 60 tankers loaded with stolen Syrian oil left Syrian territory, accompanied by an escort from the occupation forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia, through the illegal Mahmoudiyah crossing towards the occupation bases in northern Iraq.” 

US troops in Syria have continued to systematically loot the country’s natural resources, including oil, wheat, and barley – transferring the plundered goods to Iraq illegally. 

An in-depth investigation by The Cradle in 2022 details the process of the oil smuggling operation by US forces and the use of several illegal border crossings that lead to the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

According to the exclusive, there are usually no less than 70 to 100 tankers transporting Syrian oil during each journey. The Syrian oil ministry has incurred billions-worth of losses as a result. 

The Kurdish SDF, which faces an ongoing tribal rebellion that began in its areas of control in August last year, helps Washington oversee the occupation of Syrian oilfields.

Sunday’s looting operation follows Washington’s brutal attacks on Syria and Iraq two days earlier. The airstrikes came in response to Iraqi resistance attacks on US bases in both countries, particularly one on US military outpost Tower 22 on the Jordanian side of the border with Syria, which killed three US soldiers. 

The US air force carried out strikes on 85 sites in the border regions connecting Iraq and Syria early on 3 February, killing several.

US Central Command stated its forces struck targets “belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and its allies, in Iraq and Syria” using “long-range bombers launched from the United States.”

US and British fighter jets launched yet another joint assault on Yemen the following day, 4 February, in response to pro-Palestine naval operations carried out by the Ansarallah movement and the Armed Forces of the Yemeni government in Sanaa.