Military Base Housing US Troops in Eastern Syria Comes Under Rocket Attack

Wednesday, 04 January 2023 4:13 PM

Press TV 

In this file picture, mask-clad US soldiers walk during a patrol near an oil production facility in the countryside near al-Malikiyah in Syria's northeastern province of Hasakah on October 27, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

A military base housing US occupation forces in eastern Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr province came under a heavy rocket attack on Wednesday, as Washington continues to plunder natural resources from energy-rich regions of the war-ravaged country.

The Arabic service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency, citing local sources, reported that at least 10 rockets targeted the base located in the Conoco gas field.

The report added that rocket sirens sounded and several ambulances were dispatched to the military base following the attack as plumes of smoke and fire could be seen at the site of the incident. 

US military jets and reconnaissance drones also flew intensely over the field following the attack, reports said.

American occupation forces, evidently petrified by the surprise attack, reportedly sealed all roads leading to the occupied military facility.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack which comes amid continued US destabilizing activities in the Arab country.

The US military's Central Command, which oversees American troops in the Middle East, in a statement, said two rockets launched at around 9 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) on Wednesday targeted US-led forces at Mission Support Site Conoco.

The statement claimed that the projectiles did not cause any injuries or damage to the US forces present at the site.

The statement added that US-sponsored and Kurdish-led militants affiliated with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) visited the rocket origin site, and found a third unfired rocket.

The development comes as several massive explosions were heard in the area close to the US-controlled al-Omar oil field late on Friday after a barrage of projectiles struck the site.

Local sources did not rule out at the time the possibility of serious injuries and considerable damage.

US forces smuggle wheat crops, crude oil from northeast Syria to Iraq

In a separate development on Wednesday, two convoys of US military trucks and tankers reportedly carried tons of grain and crude oil 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 36 tankers loaded with oil rumbled through the illegal al-Mahmoudiyah border crossing and entered the Iraqi territories.

The sources added that another convoy of 26 military vehicles carrying wheat crops from the Jazira Region headed for northern Iraq through the al-Waleed crossing in the al-Ya'rubiyah region.

The US 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 US president Donald Trump admitted on several occasions that American forces were in the Arab country for its oil wealth.

Back in August, the Syrian oil ministry said in a statement that the US and its mercenaries were stealing an average of 66,000 barrels of oil per day in Syria, about 80 percent of Syria’s oil production.

The smuggling has cost Syria’s oil industry direct and indirect losses of about 105 billion US dollars, according to the statement.