US using choppers to transport Syrian gold stashed by Daesh: Reports

DAMASCUS (Sputnik): US President Donald Trump baffled the whole world last December by saying that the self-proclaimed caliphate, Daesh, had been defeated in Syria, going on to announce the withdrawal of all American troops from the Arab Republic.

Syrian state-run news agency SANA has cited local sources as saying that US forces have used helicopters to transfer large boxes full of the “spoils” of Daesh terrorists from the al-Dashisha area in Hasaka province’s southern countryside.

The sources claim that the boxes contained huge amounts of gold that the terrorist group had safely stored east of al-Shadadi city — an account, which, as SANA stresses, corresponds with other reports that Daesh had transported some 40 tonnes of gold bullions stolen from Mosul in Iraq and other areas in Syria to al-Dashisha.

According to the sources, US military helicopters arrived in Hajun in Deir ez-Zor and Dashisha in Hasaka, transferring Daesh militants who had surrendered themselves to American troops and later directed them to the cashes of stolen gold, allegedly closing a deal under which Washington “spared hundreds of the terror organisation’s field leaders and experts”.

Washington has yet to comment on the report.

The US has previously been accused by multiple countries of organising transportation for Daesh fighters, with SANA suggesting that the US military has used helicopters to evacuate Daesh commanders with their families or transport the terrorists to training camps.

Just two months ago, Tasnim News Agency cited Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani as alleging that the US was transporting Daesh militants to Afghanistan from Syria:

“Over the past year, the US has moved a large number of Daesh terrorists to Afghanistan, which could once again create the same troubles in some parts of Asia that it created in Iraq and Syria”, he said.

Last September, SANA reported that the US-led coalition had performed “an air landing operation” on the outskirts of al-Marashida in order to airlift terrorist leaders to an unknown destination.

The first signs of the alleged assistance emerged in September 2017, when a source told Sputnik that US military helicopters had transferred Daesh field commanders from Deir ez-Zor province to northern Syria in late August amid the Syrian army’s successful advance.

Washington announced plans to withdraw from the war-torn country in late December, after President Donald Trump declared victory over Daesh.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal cited current and former US officials as saying that the US military was preparing to pull out all troops deployed in Syria by the end of April.