US Forces Continue to Steal Syrian Oil

On Wednesday, Syria’s official news agency SANA cited local sources from Al-Yarubiya area in the countryside of Hasakah Province as saying that a convoy of 130 tanker trucks loaded with Syrian crude oil was transferred to the Iraqi village of Mahmudiyah, which lies to the South of the illegal border crossing of Al-Waleed, on Tuesday.

According to the report, the smuggled oil was stolen from Syrian oilfields by the US forces in cooperation with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The stolen oil was transferred through a passage to Mahmudiyah that had been previously opened by the US forces to pave the way for dozens of trucks carrying smuggled goods belonging to the SDF militants to enter the area of Al-Jazeera in Northeastern Syria via Al-Waleed crossing.

The sources further stated that a convoy of 46 trucks carrying logistical equipment belonging to the US forces entered the Syrian territory via Al-Waleed crossing, hours after the oil was smuggled to Iraq on Tuesday.

The US military regularly smuggles Syrian oil to Iraq, in violation of international law.

Last week, the US forces brought a convoy made up of 111 vehicles loaded with military equipment and tanker trucks carrying stolen oil from Syria to its bases in Northern Iraq.

In early January, a US convoy of 128 vehicles transferred military equipment and Syrian oil into Northern Iraq.

The US military has stationed forces and equipment in Eastern and Northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) terrorists.

Damascus, however, says the unlawful deployment is meant to plunder the country’s resources.

Former US President Donald Trump admitted on several occasions that American forces were in Syria for its oil, noting he was keeping some forces there “to secure the oil" following a partial US troop withdrawal from Northeast Syria in October 2019.

The US has imposed several sanctions targeting companies that deliver or finance fuel shipments of Syrian oil for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's government, but the American company involved in the Northeast Syria deal with Kurdish forces has reportedly received an exemption from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to operate in Syria.

Kurdish fighters have also managed to fully recapture a prison in Syria’s Northeastern city of Hasakah, days after it fell to remnants of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

More than 100 Daesh terrorists launched an attack against the Ghwayran prison on January 20 to free their comrades from the detention center, which was thought to hold some 3,500 Daesh inmates at the time of the assault.

Daesh terrorists entered the prison after their two explosives-laden vehicles steered by bombers destroyed the entrance and killed the guards. Terrorists caused a major jailbreak of an unknown number of their comrades, seized weapons and took over several cell blocks.

The brazen Daesh jailbreak attempt and ensuing clashes, according to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, left 124 Daesh terrorists, 50 SDF militants and seven civilians dead. The attack is considered the group’s most high-profile and sophisticated terrorist operation since the loss of its so-called caliphate nearly three years ago.

In a statement, Farhad Shami of the SDF announced that days of operations had “culminated with our entire control” over the prison in Hasakeh after all the holed-up Daesh terrorists surrendered.

However, he did not mention the fate of 850 children and minors caught in the crossfire when the SDF militants began to storm the prison on Monday.

At the time, Kurdish militants initially stated they had thwarted the breakout and arrested nearly 90 terrorists sheltering nearby, but later acknowledged that inmates had taken over parts of the facility.

According to the observatory, the SDF militants had cut off food and water to the prison for two days to pressure the hiding Daesh terrorists to give themselves up.

The Ghwayran prison is the biggest detention center where the US-backed SDF has kept thousands of detainees. The relatives of many prisoners say they were arrested on flimsy charges for resisting the SDF’s forced conscription.

In recent years, the US has been maintaining an illegal military presence on the Syrian soil, collaborating with militants against Syria’s legitimate government, and bombing the positions of the Syrian Army and anti-terror popular forces. 

The Takfiri terrorists have been active in the oil-rich provinces of Syria despite the heavy deployment of the US occupation forces.

The terrorists have managed to regain a foothold in the region after facing defeat at the hands of the Syrian Army in 2019.