At least three people have lost their lives as powerful bomb blast hits US military vehicle in the Syria's Dayr al-Zawr province on Friday.
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Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing local sources, said the blast took place on Friday when an explosive device went off in a Hummer as it was traveling along the road to al-Omar oil field.
The oil field, occupied by American forces, is Syria’s largest and lies some 10 kilometers north of the town of al-Mayadin.
The report said it was not immediately clear whether those killed were militants affiliated with the US-sponsored Kurdish SDF militants or American troops.
The US military has made no comments on the incident yet.
Over the past several months, the US military has brought in hundreds of truckloads of munitions and logistical equipment to Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr and Hasakah provinces through illegal border crossings with northern Iraq.
The US, in collusion with the SDF, controls most of the oil fields in the energy-rich provinces.
Syria produced around 380,000 barrels of oil per day before the onset of the conflict there in March 2011.
The US first confirmed its looting of Syrian oil during a Senate hearing exchange between South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo in late July last year.
During his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time, Pompeo confirmed for the first time that an American oil company would begin work in northeastern Syria.
The Syrian government strongly condemned the agreement, saying that the deal was struck to plunder the country's natural resources, including oil and gas, under the sponsorship and support of the administration of former US president Donald Trump.
Raids and arrests of Syrian civilians by the SDF militants continue in the areas controlled by the US-backed forces in Hasakah and Dayr al-Zawr provinces.
Locals accuse the militants of stealing crude oil and refusing to spend money on service sectors.
Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, in two identical letters addressed to UN Secretary General António Guterres and rotating President of the UN Security Council Tarek Ladeb on Wednesday, strongly condemned the actions of US occupation forces in the country’s northeast, saying they amount to a blatant violation of the Syrian sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a flagrant breach of international law.
The ministry also renewed the Damascus government’s calls for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of US forces from the Syria’s territory.
It added that US occupation forces continue their regular hostile measures in Jazira region of Hasakah province, including “systematic looting … of the Syrian resources, agricultural crops and oil …, in addition to bringing in huge military reinforcement, logistic equipment, various kinds of weapons, tools and military vehicles from Iraq” to some of the US military bases in the countryside of al-Yaarubiyah town via the al-Waleed crossing.
