Damascus, July 31 (RHC)-- The U.S. military has separately used dozens of tankers and trucks to smuggle crude oil and crops from the country’s northeastern province of Hasakah to bases in neighboring Iraq, amid Washington’s attempts to further plunder natural resources in war-ravaged Syria.

Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing local sources in al-Ya’rubiyah town, reported that a convoy of 45 tankers, loaded with stolen oil, left Syria through the illegal Mahmoudiya border crossing on Sunday, and headed toward Iraqi territories.

The report added that another convoy of US occupation forces, consisting of 50 military vehicles and refrigerator trucks, rumbled through al-Waleed border crossing hours later, and entered Iraqi territories.  The convoy reportedly included a shipment of agricultural crops from grain silos in al-Ya’rubiyah.

U.S. military trucks and tankers frequently carry tons of grain and crude oil from the northeastern Syrian province of Hasakah to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq as part of Washington’s systematic smuggling of basic commodities out of Syria.

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

Damascus, however, maintains the deployment is meant to plunder the country’s natural resources. Former US President Donald Trump admitted on several occasions that American forces were in the Arab country for its oil wealth.

On Saturday, SANA reported that the U.S. had dispatched a large convoy of trucks carrying arms and logistic supplies to Hasakah.   The report said that the convoy of 30 trucks and tankers was loaded with medium caliber weapon systems, anti-armor missiles, modern communication and jamming systems as well as munitions intended for the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).