DAMASCUS (SANA) – The U.S. military illegally transported 137 tanker trucks with oil from Syria to Iraq on Sunday morning, according to a report.
U.S. troops transported the oil in two convoys, consisting of 122 and 15 tanker trucks, and used the Mahmoudiya illegal border crossing to get to Iraq, according to local sources.
Earlier this week, media reported that the United States has transported almost 400 tanker trucks with Syrian oil.
U.S. armed forces are illegally controlling territories in northern and northeastern Syria in the provinces of Dayr al-Zawr, Hasakah and Raqqah, where Syria’s largest oil and gas deposits are located.
Damascus has repeatedly called the presence of U.S. troops on its territory an occupation and state piracy for the purpose of oil heist.
A leading Chinese newspaper has lambasted the continued plundering of the Syrian oil by the U.S. occupation forces across the Arab country, saying that the looting is a “disgrace and a shame to Washington.”
China Daily made the assertion in an article published last week, following reports that a convoy consisting of more than a hundred U.S. military tankers had carried thousands of liters of crude oil from the northeastern Syrian province of Hasakah to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.
“It is easy to understand the fact that U.S. troops steal oil from Syria, as theft has long been their profession. Yet, it is rather informative that the U.S. troops transported their stolen oil to Iraq, which is, in the general impression of the public, a country rich in oil,” the paper said, stressing that the matter shows the “U.S.’ greedy appetite for oil is still not satisfied.”
The top Chinese newspaper pointed out that the theft always reflects negatively on the people of the countries whose resources are stolen by the United States, underlining Iraq’s high rates of poverty despite the country’s richness in oil and other natural assets.
“Despite being the fifth-largest oil producer of the world, much of Iraq’s population is still living in poverty,” the paper said, adding, “There might be many reasons, but pillaging by the U.S. is probably one of them. There have been many reports of the U.S. having shipped seized and shipped gold out of the country.”