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Syrian media: US military tankers smuggle crude oil from Hasakah to Iraq again

Mask-clad US soldiers walk during a patrol near an oil production facility in the countryside near al-Malikiyah town in Syria's northeastern province of Hasakah on October 27, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

A convoy of dozens of US tankers has left Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah for the neighboring Iraq laden with the Arab country’s crude oil, as Washington continues looting Syria's energy resources.

Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing local sources in the village of al-Sweidyia, reported that a convoy of 85 military vehicles and tankers departed Syria through al-Walid border crossing on Sunday, heading towards Iraqi territories.

The sources added that 16 armored vehicles belonging to the US military escorted the convoy until it reached the border crossing.

During recent months, the US military has increased smuggling Syria's oil through the Iraqi soil.

On December 9, local sources, requesting not to be named, told SANA that a convoy of 60 US military vehicles and tankers rumbled through al-Walid border crossing and headed towards western Iraq after being filled with crude from Rmeilan oil fields in Syria’s Hasakah province.

The US first confirmed its looting of Syrian oil during a Senate hearing exchange between South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in late July.

On July 30 and during his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Pompeo confirmed for the first time that an American oil company would begin work in northeastern Syria, which is controlled by militants from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The Syrian government strongly condemned the agreement, saying that the deal was struck to plunder the country's natural resources, including oil and gas, under the sponsorship and support of the administration of US President Donald Trump.

Syrian army finds Israeli-made weapons in southern region

Also on Sunday, Syrian government forces confiscated a large amount of weapons and ammunition, some of which are Israeli-made, in a southern region of the country.

The seized weapons were found in former strongholds of foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists, and included heavy and light weapons, some of which are Israeli-made, as well as an unmanned aerial vehicle.

Confiscated weapons are seen at a Syrian army base in southern Syria on December 13, 2020. (Photo by SANA)

Dozens of automatic rifles, sniper rifles, 23mm and 12.7mm machine guns, shoulder-launched missiles, rocket-propelled grenades of various calibers, and more than 300 metal bullet boxes were also among the confiscated weapons.

Syrian army has discovered several batches of weapons in the southern province of Dara’a and elsewhere across the country after defeating Takfiri terrorists.

Confiscated weapons are seen at a Syrian army base in southern Syria on December 13, 2020. (Photo by SANA)

Dara’a province holds major significance as it was the birthplace of the nine-year-old Syria conflict, and government troops are still finding weapons in that area as part of a wide-scale clean-up campaign that followed the liberation of Dara’a in 2018.


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