In late 2019, US President Donald Trump candidly admitted that Washington had “left troops behind” in Syria “only for the oil”. Damascus has blasted Trump for pillaging the Arab Republic's resources, but President Bashar al-Assad also praised him for openly admitting the real reason US forces continue to occupy part of his country.
A convoy of 20 tankers laden with oil pumped from wells in the US-occupied region of Jazira left Hasakah province heading toward the illegal Al Waleed border crossing between Syria and Iraq on Saturday night, local sources have told the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
The agency's sources did not provide any more information about the convoy's composition, and whether it included any military escorts.
In late September, the news agency reported that another convoy consisting of 35 tankers had slipped across the border, with more smuggling incidents reported this past summer.
Late last year, Russian military intelligence released a report on US oil-smuggling activities in Syria, revealing that the Pentagon, private contractors, the CIA and Kurdish militias were shipping up to $30 million-worth of black gold out of the war-torn country every month.
In a related development, SANA reported Sunday that US forces had brought a convoy of 30 vehicles into Syria from Iraq via the Al Waleed crossing point to shore up its bases in Hasakah, with the convoy said to include…
