DAMASCUS, April 22 (Xinhua) -- A convoy of U.S. forces plundered more Syrian sources on Monday, taking out trucks of oil and grain through an illegal crossing with Iraq, state news agency SANA reported.
According to the SANA report, 69 vehicles, including 45 tankers with oil and 24 trucks with wheat, were observed exiting the illegal Al-Mahmudiyah crossing on their way to Iraq.
The resources were looted from northeastern Syria's Al-Hasakah province, and it is believed that the convoy's destination is U.S. bases in northern Iraq, said the report.
Civilian sources in the countryside of Al-Hasakah near the Iraqi border said that U.S. forces have intensified operations to loot and plunder Syrian resources from areas under their control in the province.
The Syrian government has been accusing the U.S. forces of "pillaging Syrian resources," a move that further exacerbates the economic hardships facing the war-torn country.
Last July, Farhan Jamil Abdullah, head of the government-run Syrian Oil Company, said that the Syrian government had lost control of most of the energy fields as a result of the U.S. presence in oil-rich areas in northern and eastern Syria.
Due to the U.S. sanctions and military presence in Syria, oil production in the country has decreased to 15,000 barrels per day from 385,000 barrels before the crisis, while gas production has plunged from 30 million cubic meters per day to 10 million cubic meters, according to Abdullah. ■
