DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – A U.S. military base near the Omar oil field - Syria’s largest source of crude oil, has come under attack, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported Sunday, citing local sources.
The agency’s sources said the U.S. base, situated in the country’s Dayr al-Zawr province, was targeted by rocket propelled grenades.
Plumes of smoke were said to have risen from the area in the aftermath of the attack.
SANA gave no indication as to who may have been responsible for the rocket fire.
This is reportedly the fourth time facilities near the Omar field have been attacked in the past week or so. On Wednesday, the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces - a U.S.-backed mostly Kurdish militia involved in the illegal occupation of eastern Syria, announced they had ‘thwarted’ a drone attack in the area. However, pro-Syrian government media reported that a drone attack carried out Thursday caused smoke to rise from the base near the field, and that two other attacks were launched before that in the space of several days.
Sunday’s incident is also the second time in less than 24 hours that Syrian media have reported on an attack U.S. troops stationed near a major strategic energy facility. On Saturday night, a U.S. defense official confirmed to Sputnik that U.S. troops faced an “indirect fire attack” in Conoco - a major gas field, which is also situated in Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr province.
Over the past years, the U.S. has been maintaining an illegal military presence on Syrian soil, collaborating with anti-Damascus terrorists and stealing the country’s crude oil resources.
Washington led scores of its allies as part of the coalition into the Arab country and neighboring Iraq in 2014 under the pretext of fighting the Takfiri terrorist group of Daesh.
Various reports and regional officials, however, provided evidence of the coalition’s role in relocating Daesh’s elements in both the countries.
In Syria, the United States has been trying to keep a tight control over certain strategic areas, including the eastern oilfield, where it is engaged in large-scale theft of the country’s crude.
The Iraqi parliament and Damascus have both ruled the U.S.-led coalition’s operation in the countries as illegal.