Rear Adm. Alexander Karpov, deputy head of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria, declared in a Thursday report that US military personnel illegally staying in Syria had once again violated deconflicting protocol by failing to provide Russian military police with route details for a convoy of armored vehicles.
"In the northeastern Syrian province of Al-Hasakah, another case of violation of the deconfliction protocols by the units of the US armed forces, illegally staying in Syria, was recorded," Karpov said.
As a result, officers with Russian military police in Northeastern Syria stopped the convoy of six Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP)-type armored vehicles and directed the US military troops to turn around.
When asked about the reported violation, US Department of Defense spokesperson Jessica McNulty told Sputnik "I don't have anything to offer you on this."
The US has maintained that its troops in northeastern Syria have been deployed to the area to prevent the country's oil fields from being overrun with Daesh forces.
A US convoy of 55 armored vehicles were seen in northeastern Syria on Thursday, SANA reported, citing sources based in al-Ya'rubiyah. Another 27 US military vehicles were spotted on Tuesday transporting wheat and crude oil from Syria to bordering Iraqi territories.
Bassam Touma, Syria's oil minister, argued otherwise back in March, when he accused the US and its allies of "targeting the Syrian oil wealth and its tankers just like pirates."
"What has happened all through the war in Syria has not happened in any country, in terms of preventing us from tapping our wealth and at the same time stopping basic commodities from reaching our country," he added, estimating that Syria's oil sector has taken a $92 billion hit.
Earlier this week, a spokesperson for the Russian troops in Syria announced that, since April 23, the Syrian government and Russia's Aerospace Forces had jointly eliminated "338 militants of terrorist groups" and detained 44 additional militants.