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US military forces smuggle grain from northeast Syria to Iraq again: Report

Tuesday, 06 April 2021 5:29 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 06 April 2021 6:42 AM ]

In this file picture, US military vehicles patrol alomng the M4highway near Tal Tamr, Northeastern Syria, on May 20, 2020. (By AFP)

A convoy of more than a dozen US military trucks has reportedly carried tons of grain from Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.

Local sources, requesting anonymity, told Syria’s official news agency SANA that 14 military vehicles loaded with wheat crops from silos of Tal Alou village in al-Ya’rubiyah region entered the Iraqi territories on Monday after crossing al-Waleed border crossing.

A few days earlier, 12 US military vehicles passed through Semalka border crossing and headed towards northern Iraq. They were carrying wheat from silos in northeast Syria.

Local sources in Syria’s northeastern town of al-Malikiyah also reported back on March 26 that 18 US military vehicles, loaded with wheat crops, had crossed Semalka border, and entered the Iraqi territory.

This comes as US forces also continue to smuggle crude oil from Hasakah to Iraq.

The US military has stationed forces and equipment in northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the troops deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.

Russia: US smuggling Syrian oil, grain amid shortage of basic goods

Russia’s deputy foreign minister says the US is smuggling oil and grain from Syria while people in the war-torn country are suffering from acute shortage of basic products.

Damascus, however, says the deployment is meant to plunder 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 war-stricken Arab country, revealing that Washington controls 90 percent of crude reserves in oil-rich northeastern Syria.

Former president Donald Trump had openly admitted on several occasions that oil was the main reason which kept US troops in Syria.

The US confirmed its looting 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.

On July 30 and during his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Pompeo confirmed for the first time that an American oil company would begin work in northeastern Syria, which is controlled by militants from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The Syrian government strongly condemned the agreement, saying that the deal was struck to plunder the country’s natural resources, including oil and gas, under the sponsorship and support of the administration of former US president Donald Trump.

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