DAMASCUS (Dispatches) –
Local residents of a village in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah in cooperation with government forces prevented a U.S. military convoy from advancing through their villages on Wednesday.
Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that a convoy of six armored vehicles was forced to turn around and head back in the direction it came from after locals in al-Buladiyah village aided by government forces stationed at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the area blocked the road.
The report added that the villagers threw stones at the American convoy and chanted vociferous slogans in condemnation of U.S. occupation forces.
There were no reports of casualties during the confrontation.
The development took place two days after the U.S. military, in cooperation with allied Kurdish-led militants affiliated with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), employed 76 tankers to smuggle crude oil from Syria’s Jazira region in Hasakah province to bases in neighboring Iraq.
The U.S. military has for long stationed its 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 natural resources. Former U.S. president Donald Trump admitted on several occasions that American forces were in the Arab country for its oil wealth.
Separately, Syrian government forces have discovered Western-made weapons from a position of Daesh Takfiri militants in the country’s southwestern city of Dara’a.
An informed source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told SANA that security forces carried out a clean-up operation in Tariq al-Sad neighborhood, and found a big weapons depot left behind by members of the Daesh terrorist group.
Meanwhile, militants allied with Turkey have reportedly shelled residential areas in the countryside of Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah.
Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing local sources speaking on condition of anonymity, reported that Turkish troops and their allies stationed in the towns of Aniq al-Hawa and Dawoudiyah struck the villages of al-Rbeiaat and Um Harmala in the Tal Abu Rasin district on Tuesday.
The sources added that the strikes caused material damage to residential buildings and private properties.