US-led coalition aircraft transport Syrian gold stashed by Daesh: Report

The US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has airlifted to safe sanctuaries several large boxes full of “spoils” that members of the foreign-sponsored terror outfit had claimed in Syria’s eastern provinces of Hasakah and Dayr al-Zawr as well as neighboring Iraq.

Local sources, requesting anonymity, told Syria’s official news agency SANA that US-led military helicopters landed in the Dashisha area of Hasakah as well as Hajin town in Dayr al-Zawr, and transported dozens of Takfiri commanders and militants to unknown locations following a deal.

The sources added that the extremists, in return, directed the US-led forces to their caches of stolen gold east of Shaddadi town.

The report corresponds with earlier reports that Daesh terrorists had transported some 40 tons of gold bullions stolen from the strategic northern Iraqi city of Mosul, located some 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital Baghdad, and other areas in Syria to Dashisha.

SANA, citing information received from local residents, reported on October 7 last year that American helicopters had evacuated Daesh commanders from Shaafah town in Abu Kamal district of Dayr al-Zawr to an undisclosed location.

PressTV-Russia to back Syria UN action against US-led airstrikes

The Russian foreign minister says Moscow will support Syria’s demand in the UN Security Council for US-led coalition to halt its airstrikes.

The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes and operations against what are said to be Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a United Nations mandate.

The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of achieving its declared goal of destroying Daesh.

On February 12, the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, in two separate letters addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the rotating president of the Security Council, Anatolio Ndong Mba, denounced the coalition strikes conducted against Baghouz town a day earlier, saying the US-led warplanes had pounded a refugee camp.

Local sources told state-run Ikhbariyah Syria television news network that 16 civilians, including seven children, were killed as a result of the raid.

“This new crime is in line with the series of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which the US-led coalition has perpetrated against Syrian people, its continued support for terrorism, and its use of terrorists and separatist militia forces to advance its fiendish plots aimed at Syria’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity,” said the letters.

The ministry also called on the UN Security Council to stand up against such attacks and crimes.

It also demanded that the Council assume its responsibilities regarding the establishment of international peace and security, conduct an international probe into these criminal acts, condemn them, and put an immediate halt to these air raids as well as the “aggressive” presence of US and other foreign military forces on the Syrian soil.

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