Damascus, July 25 (RHC)-- The U.S. military has dispatched truckloads of ammunition and logistical equipment to Syria's northeastern province of Hasakah, in what is seen by some as an effort to plunder the country’s oil reserves and other natural resources.

The Arabic service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency, citing local sources, reported that ‏a convoy of 30 trucks, carrying logistical equipment, fuel and ammunition, crossed the Waleed border crossing on Saturday and headed toward US positions in the province.

The sources added that the convoy drove toward illegal US military bases in the countryside of Hasakah, especially the base set up at al-Jibsah oilfields in the town of al-Shaddadi.  The development comes only a few days after 39 U.S. military tankers rumbled through the al-Mahmoudiya border crossing and headed toward Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region after being filled with Syrian crude oil.

The U.S. military has stationed forces and equipment in northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.

Damascus, however, maintains that the unauthorized U.S. deployment is aimed at plundering the country’s rich mineral resources.

Earlier this month, a senior Russian diplomat lashed out at the persisting illegal presence of US military forces in Syria, demanding that the Pentagon end its illegitimate occupation of the Arab nation’s energy- and mineral-rich regions.

“Washington uses the pretext of combating terrorism to be present east of the Euphrates in economically important areas, where crude oil and strategic natural reserves are abundant,” Mikhail Bogdanov, the Russian president’s special representative for the Middle East and Africa, said in an interview with al-Arabiya television news network published on July 18th.

The Russian president’s special envoy for Syria says Washington seeks to undermine stability in the country.  At the same time, he went on, U.S. troops are deployed at the al-Tanf area in southern Syria, which marks a flagrant violation of the country’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity.

Bogdanov also censured US support in the terror-ravaged country for the anti-Damascus Kurdish-led militants affiliated with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria.