UNITED States occupying forces continued the plunder of Syria’s natural resources over the weekend as a convoy of at least 40 tankers smuggled oil into Iraq via an illegal border crossing, Syrian authorities charge.  

“The US occupation forces have transported tanker trucks loaded with stolen oil and vehicles carrying military equipment from al-Jazeera region [of Hasakah province] towards the Iraqi territory,” the Syrian Arab News Agency reported on Saturday. 

The crude oil had been extracted from oil wells occupied by US forces in the region which is controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the report said. 

A convoy, which consisted of 40 vehicles, used the illegal al-Waleed crossing to enter Iraqi territory and was “protected by US occupation armoured vehicles,” local sources said. 

Washington has a number of military bases in north-east Syria which it says are necessary to protect the region from the threat of Isis. 

But in 2020 former US president Donald Trump admitted that its only interest was securing control of the region’s natural resources, in particular oil.

Later that year Delta Crescent Energy, a “cowboy outfit” headed by a former diplomat and special forces soldier with links to the Republican Party, was handed a contract to develop and export the region’s crude oil in a secretive deal. 

The Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad labelled the agreement struck with the SDF “theft.”

It was also criticised by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) commander Cemil Bayik, the first sign of an open rift between the Kurdish forces.

The US has been asked to leave by the Damascus government which considers it an occupying force that sponsors terrorism. 

Sources close to the SDF confirmed the theft of wheat, telling the Morning Star that both local and Western journalists visiting the region are “not brave enough to speak out.”