The Russian Defence Ministry previously published satellite photos showing how Syrian crude was being smuggled from oil facilities guarded by the US for processing abroad. At the same time, US President Donald Trump has considered sending a big US company to “keep the oil […] properly”.
Part of the US troops, who returned from Iraq to Syria after a brief “withdrawal” announced by Washington, have been deployed to the oil-rich governorate of Al-Hasakah, near the town of Tell Beydar, local sources say. This group returned to the Arab Republic as part of a larger military convoy that went through Syrian-Iraqi Semalka border crossing last night.
According to the sources, the US will soon be sending another group of American troops to the same region, although exact date remains unclear.
The Russian Defence Ministry earlier presented several satellite photos of Syrian oil fields, controlled by the US forces both prior to and after the defeat of Daesh*. According to them, the oil was “actively extracted” and then smuggled out of the country for further reprocessing. Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov slammed it as “international state banditism”.
The spokesman further elaborated that the operation to smuggle Syrian oil had been conducted between “leading American corporations” and private military contractors protected by US troops. He estimated monthly revenues from the operation to be over $30 million, suggesting that the Pentagon and the CIA…
