Rockets Hit U.S. Base in Eastern Syria

Date: 04 January 2023 - 21:48

News ID: ۱۱۰۹۲۴

BEIRUT (Dispatches) – Two rockets struck a base housing American troops in eastern Syria on Wednesday, the U.S. military said.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack in east Syria, where it is not uncommon for bases housing U.S. troops to come under rocket fire or mortar attacks.

The Britain-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the rockets were fired by Arab tribesmen in the region.

U.S. Central Command, CENTCOM, said members of the Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed so-called Syrian Democratic Forces visited the rocket origin site and found a third that was not fire.

There are roughly 900 U.S. troops in Syria, including in the north and farther south and east.

A military facility housing U.S. forces in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr reportedly came under rocket fire from nearby areas late Friday.

The Arabic service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency, citing local sources, reported that ‏several massive explosions were heard in the area close to the U.S.-controlled al-Omar oil field , after barrages of projectiles struck the site.

Local sources said a number of ambulances were dispatched to the site as rocket sirens were sounded out.

All roads leading to the occupied military facility were sealed by U.S.-backed Kurdish militants affiliated with the SDF.

The sources did not rule out the possibility of serious injuries and damage.

U.S. Continues Looting Syrian Oil

In another development, the U.S. forces sent 60 truckloads of Syrian fuel to its bases in northern Iraq on Wednesday, the state-run SANA news agency reported.

The recent shipment is the latest in a string of U.S. thefts of Syrian oil, SANA noted.

In December, the Syrian foreign ministry estimated in a statement Syria’s economic losses caused by the U.S. military operations on its soil at 111.9 billion U.S. dollars.

The direct losses are estimated at 25.9 billion dollars: 19.8 billion dollars from the U.S. theft of oil and gas, 3.2 billion dollars in damage to state infrastructure, and 2.9 billion dollars in damage to oil and gas facilities, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, the ministry put the indirect losses at 86 billion dollars.

“The American occupation forces and the militias associated with it continue their organized looting of oil, wheat and other basic resources and the national wealth of the Syrian people,” the ministry noted.

U.S. military trucks and tankers frequently carry tons of grain and crude oil from the northeastern Syrian province of Hasakah to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq as part of Washington’s systematic smuggling of basic commodities out of Syria.

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 the Daesh terrorists.

Damascus, however, maintains the deployment is meant to plunder the Arab 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.

Damascus also complains that the U.S.’s thefts of Syrian oil, natural gas and other resources have led to energy shortages and have further deteriorated the economy and people’s livelihoods.