United States: Convoy forces smuggle stolen Syrian resources into Iraq

Damascus, April 23 A convoy of US forces plundered more Syrian sources, taking out trucks of oil and grain through an illegal crossing with Iraq, the media reported. According to the state news agency SANA report released on Monday, 69 vehicles, including 45 tankers with oil and 24 trucks with wheat, were observed exiting the illegal Al-Mahmudiyah crossing on their way to Iraq. The resources were looted from northeastern Syria's Al-Hasakah province, and it is believed that the convoy's destination is US bases in northern Iraq, said the report.

Civilian sources in the countryside of Al-Hasakah near the Iraqi border said that US forces have intensified operations to loot and plunder Syrian resources from areas under their control in the province, Xinhua news agency reported. The Syrian government has been accusing the US forces of "pillaging Syrian resources," a move that further exacerbates the economic hardships facing the war-torn country.

Last July, Farhan Jamil Abdullah, head of the government-run Syrian Oil Company, said that the Syrian government had lost control of most of the energy fields as a result of the US presence in oil-rich areas in northern and eastern Syria. Due to the US sanctions and military presence in Syria, oil production in the country has decreased to 15,000 barrels per day from 385,000 barrels before the crisis, while gas production has plunged from 30 million cubic metre per day to 10 million cubic metre, according to Abdullah.

--IANS

int/khz

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