Mask-clad U.S. soldiers walk during a patrol near an oil production facility in Syria's northeastern province of Hasakah.  (Photo: AFP)

Damascus, December 13 (RHC)-- A convoy of dozens of U.S. tankers has left Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah for the neighboring Iraq laden with the Arab country’s crude oil, as Washington continues looting Syria's energy resources.

Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing local sources in the village of al-Sweidyia, reported that a convoy of 85 military vehicles and tankers departed Syria through al-Walid border crossing on Sunday, heading towards Iraqi territories.

The sources added that 16 armored vehicles belonging to the U.S. military escorted the convoy until it reached the border crossing. 

On December 9, local sources, requesting not to be named, told SANA that a convoy of 60 U.S. military vehicles and tankers rumbled through al-Walid border crossing and headed towards western Iraq after being filled with crude from Rmeilan oil fields in Syria’s Hasakah province.

The U.S. first confirmed its looting of Syrian oil during a Senate hearing exchange between South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in late July.  On July 30 and during his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Pompeo confirmed for the first time that an American oil company would begin work in northeastern Syria, which is controlled by militants from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

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 U.S. President Donald Trump.