US Transfers its Military Equipment Out of Iraq, into Syria

A convoy of 20 trucks, loaded with US logistical materials used in military engineering fortifications, took the equipment to a place near al-Hasakah, SANA reported on Wednesday night.

The US forces have in recent months moved thousands of trucks loaded with weapons, logistics and military equipment to al-Hasakah through illegal entry points, the report said.

SANA says Washington’s moves are aimed at reinforcing the US presence in Syria’s Jazira Region and plundering its oil and other natural resources.

The recent transfer of equipment comes as the US-led military coalition has recently started evacuating its troops from a number of bases in Iraq, handing the bases over to the Iraqi military, according to PressTV.

“There is a timetable between the Iraqi government and the international coalition forces for the latter to hand over the sites,” Spokesman for the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC), Major General Tahseen al-Khafaji, said on Tuesday.

The US-led coalition forces have already withdrawn from K1 Air Base, which lies 15 kilometers (9 miles) northwest of Kirkuk, and given it back to Iraqi forces during a ceremony.

Iraqi lawmakers unanimously approved a bill on January 5, demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the United States from the country following the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) – better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, and their companions in a US airstrike authorized by President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport two days earlier.

Later on January 9, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the former Iraqi prime minister, called on the United States to dispatch a delegation to Baghdad tasked with formulating a mechanism for the move.