Dozens of oil-laden tankers reportedly looted from Syrian al-Jazeera were dispatched by the US forces to their bases in northern Iraq, local news agency SANA reported.
Quoting locals from A-Ya’arubiyya area in Syria, the agency reported, “Shortly before dawn, the occupation forces dispatched a convoy comprising 39 tankers loaded with oil heading to al-Mahmoudiya crossing to move it later to their bases in the north of Iraq.”
Though the claims have been denied by the US and its forces, the Syria’s Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources said that during the first half of 2022, the country produced more than 80,000 barrels of oil per day, and up to 66,000 barrels were stolen by U.S. occupation forces and U.S.-backed militias.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that the losses incurred by the country’s oil and gas sector as a result of US actions amounted to $107 billion since the beginning of the Syrian crisis in 2011.
In infamous comments made in 2019, former US President Donald Trump said: “We’re keeping [Syria’s] oil. We have the oil. The oil is secure. We left troops behind only for the oil.”
According to an investigation by news outlet, The Cradle, dozens of tankers pass through illegal crossings between Iraq and Syria every week in convoys accompanied by US warplanes or helicopters.
During the investigation, Cradle met shepherds who corroborate these claims and reported that Syrian oil was being transported to Al-Harir military site in Erbil, the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR), a region known as a “hub” for western and Israeli spy agencies.