Middle East

US forces smuggle wheat crops from northeast Syria to Iraq again: Report

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 had rumbled through Semalka border crossing and headed towards northern Iraq. They were carrying wheat crops from silos of Tal Alou village in northeast Syria.

Local sources in Syria’s northeastern town of al-Malikiyah had also reported back on March 26 that 18 US military vehicles, loaded with wheat crops, had passed through Semalka border crossing, 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.

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.

The US first 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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