DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – At least 30 Daesh terrorists escaped from a Kurdish-run prison in Syria’s northern province of Raqqah on Sunday, the al-Watan online newspaper reported.
The Daesh inmates escaped from the central prison in the northern part of the city at dawn, it reported.
The U.S.-backed so-called Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fanned out in search of the fugitives and launched a raid in the surroundings.
Raqqah was the former de-facto capital of the Daesh until the U.S.-backed SDF gained control of it in 2017.
Meanwhile, as part of the U.S. military’s systematic smuggling of basic commodities out of Syria, a convoy of dozens of U.S. military trucks has reportedly carried tons of grain from the 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 40 military vehicles loaded with wheat crops from silos of the Jazira Region rumbled through the al-Waleed border crossing in the al-Ya’rubiyah region and entered the Iraqi territories on Saturday.
The sources added that vehicles belonging to the U.S.-sponsored and Kurdish-led militants from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) escorted the convoy.
The development took place only a few days after the United States dispatched truckloads of military and logistical equipment to Syria’s Hasakah province.
Local sources, who asked not to be named, told SANA that in mid-June a convoy of 55 trucks crossed the Waleed border and headed toward Kharab al-Jir military airport.
The U.S. military has stationed forces and equipment in northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.
Damascus, however, maintains the deployment is meant to plunder the country’s rich mineral resources.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump admitted on more than one occasion that American forces were in the Arab country for its oil.
After failing to oust the Syrian government through militant proxies and direct involvement in the conflict, the U.S. government has stepped up its economic war on the Arab country.
In June 2020, the U.S. enacted the so-called Caesar Act that imposed the toughest sanctions ever on Syria intending to choke off revenue sources for the government.
The sanctions have crippled the war-torn country’s economy by barring foreign companies from doing trade with Damascus. Syria says the real purpose of the measures is to put pressure on Syrians and their livelihoods.
Meanwhile, rival Turkish-based Takfiri militants have turned against each other and engaged in fierce exchanges of fire in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo.
Local media outlets reported that bloody infighting has been going on between militants affiliated with the so-called Levant Front and Ahrar al-Sham terror groups in the al-Bab district of Aleppo.
The reports added that rival militants have been attacking each other’s positions intensely, using heavy weapons and tank shells.