A convoy consisting of 80 vehicles, including tank trucks carrying oil, was spotted leaving Syria via the US-controlled al-Walid border crossing with Iraq, the SANA news agency reported, citing local sources. The convoy was reportedly accompanied by several armoured US military vehicles of unspecified design.
Apart from the oil-carrying vehicles, the convoy also consisted of other trucks, including refrigerator ones. It is unclear what these trucks were carrying into Iraq.
In the past, Syrian media has reported on American troops smuggling not only crude, but also bags of wheat out of the country. On 5 August, SANA reported spotting another convoy of 25 oil-carrying vehicles moving through the same al-Walid border crossing into Iraq.
SANA has reported on multiple occasions about the efforts of US troops in smuggling the oil out of the country. The oil is extracted in Syria's north-eastern provinces, controlled by the Kurdish SDF militia. Washington claims that its troops remain deployed in the oil-rich provinces to guard the crude from remnants of Daesh* and claims that all the proceeds from the oil sales go to the Kurds.
At the same time, American troops are in the country without legal grounds – they have not been invited by the government in Damascus, nor do they have a UN Security Council mandate. The Syrian government and its allies, Russia and Iran, have repeatedly slammed the US for keeping its troops deployed in the country illegally. Damascus and Moscow have also accused Washington of stealing Syria's national recourses and demanded that they cease such activities, but to no avail.
*Daesh (also known as ISIS, IS, Islamic State) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia.