US military transports weapons, logistic material from Iraq to Syria’s Hasakah: SANA

The United States has dispatched truckloads of military and logistical equipment to oil-rich areas it has occupied in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah as Washington tightens its control over energy reserves in the war-ravaged Arab country and systematically plunders its natural resources.

Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing local sources in the town of al-Ya'rubiyah, reported that a convoy of 55 trucks, accompanied by a number of armored vehicles, crossed the al-Waleed border crossing from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq on Thursday morning and headed toward Rmelan town, located 900 kilometers northeast of the capital Damascus.

The sources pointed out that the convoy later arrived at Rmelan camp, where US occupation forces as well as heavy military equipment are stationed.

The development came only two days after a convoy of 27 US military vehicles loaded with wheat crops and crude oil entered the Iraqi territories after crossing al-Waleed border crossing.

Moscow: US has no right to criticize Russia’s legitimate presence in Syria

Moscow says the United States, which maintains an illegal presence in the Arab country, is in no position to comment on the Russian presence there, which comes at the request of Damascus.

The US military has stationed forces and equipment in northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists. Damascus says the deployment is meant to loot the country's resources. 

Syrian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Bassam Tomeh told state-run and Arabic-language al-Ikhbariyah Syria television news network on March 18 that the US and its allied Takfiri terrorist groups are looting oil reserves in the Arab country, revealing that Washington controls 90 percent of crude reserves in oil-rich northeastern Syria.

“Americans and their allies are targeting the Syrian oil wealth and its tankers just like pirates,” the Syrian oil minister said.

He noted that the cost of direct and indirect damage to the Syrian oil sector stands at more than $92 billion.

The US first confirmed its exploitation of Syrian oil during a Senate hearing exchange between South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo in late July last year.

Pompeo confirmed for the first time that an American oil company would begin work in northeastern Syria, which is controlled by the militants from the so-called Syrian Democratic forces (SDF).

US convoy smuggles Syrian grain to Iraq: Report

A convoy, comprising 10 American trucks, has smuggled grain stolen from silos in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province to Iraq’s western Anbar governorate, SANA reports.

After failing to oust the Syrian government through proxies and direct involvement in the conflict, the US government has stepped up its economic war on the Arab country. 

Last June, the US enacted the so-called Caesar Act that imposed the toughest sanctions ever on Syria with the alleged aim of choking off revenue for the government. 

The sanctions, however, have crippled the war-torn country’s economy by prohibiting foreign companies trading with Damascus.

The US and the Europeans had already banned export and investment in Syria, as well as transactions involving oil and hydrocarbon products.

US military convoys come under rocket-propelled grenade, bomb attacks in eastern Syria: Report

US occupation forces come under two separate attacks in Syria’s oil-rich eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

Syria has said the real purpose of the measures is to put pressure on Syrians and their livelihoods -- an inhumane attempt to suffocate ordinary people.

Officials also say the stepped-up smuggling of strategic Syrian resources is the latest inhuman tactic using people's basic needs as a tool to pressure the government.

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