Syria Accuses US Forces of Smuggling Wheat, Oil to Iraq

A convoy of US armored vehicles in northeastern Syria (Getty Images)
A convoy of US armored vehicles in northeastern Syria (Getty Images)
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Syria Accuses US Forces of Smuggling Wheat, Oil to Iraq

A convoy of US armored vehicles in northeastern Syria (Getty Images)
A convoy of US armored vehicles in northeastern Syria (Getty Images)

Syria accused US forces of using a military convoy to smuggle stolen wheat to northern Iraq through the al-Walid border crossing in the Hasakah region.

The Syrian News Agency (SANA) reported that a convoy of 45 vehicles of covered trucks, oil tankers and a number of refrigerators left the Syrian territories towards Iraq on Monday.

The trucks were loaded with wheat from the silos of Tal Alo and left through the al-Walid crossing.

SANA said the American troops brought out a convoy of 27 military vehicles, including Hummer cars and armored vehicles, trucks laden with stolen wheat and oil tankers stolen from the Syrian oil fields.

Meanwhile, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) seized oil tankers that were on their way to areas under the regime's control.

Dozens of tankers belonging to the Katerji company were seen heading to regime-held regions and were seized upon their arrival at the Tabqa Bridge checkpoint, west of Raqqa. Some of the drivers were arrested for unknown reasons.

Eye of the Euphrates network reported that 250 tankers were transporting oil from al-Hasakah towards regime-controlled areas. Twelve drivers were held by SDF.

The network added that they will be transferred to the security investigation, without providing additional details.

Authorities recently dismissed Major General Nizar Ahmed al-Khader, the commander of the 17th Division and the head of the Security and Military Committee in Deir Ezzor.

He was referred to investigation over charges of oil smuggling and dealing with the US Army and SDF.

Meanwhile, the SDF, in coordination with the operations room of the US-led international coalition, carried out a military security campaign to track down active ISIS cells in Wadi al-Ajij, in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor.

A military leader said that the forces destroyed many hideouts, and uncovered roads and tunnels used by militants to smuggle weapons across the Syrian-Iraqi border.

An SDF spokesman, Farhad Shami, announced that the operation targeted a desert area where ISIS movement was detected and that was used to smuggle mercenaries and weapons into Syrian territory.

This is the second security campaign carried out by the SDF, with coalition air support, within a month.

The SDF had launched numerous campaigns to pursue ISIS remnants, however, they have yet to stop terrorist activity in the region.



Syria Monitor: 101 Killed in Battles between Pro-Türkiye, Kurdish Forces

A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration shoots at pictures of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad (R) and his late father and former president Hafez al-Assad, inside the abandoned Syrian Republican Guard (SRG) base near Damascus on January 4, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration shoots at pictures of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad (R) and his late father and former president Hafez al-Assad, inside the abandoned Syrian Republican Guard (SRG) base near Damascus on January 4, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
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Syria Monitor: 101 Killed in Battles between Pro-Türkiye, Kurdish Forces

A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration shoots at pictures of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad (R) and his late father and former president Hafez al-Assad, inside the abandoned Syrian Republican Guard (SRG) base near Damascus on January 4, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration shoots at pictures of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad (R) and his late father and former president Hafez al-Assad, inside the abandoned Syrian Republican Guard (SRG) base near Damascus on January 4, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)

More than 100 combatants were killed over the last two days in northern Syria in fighting between Turkish-backed groups and Syrian Kurdish forces, a war monitor said on Sunday.
Since Friday evening, clashes in several villages around the city of Manbij have left 101 dead, including 85 members of pro-Turkish groups and 16 from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The SDF said it had repelled "all the attacks from Türkiye’s mercenaries supported by Turkish drones and aviation".
The Turkish defense ministry said it had "neutralized" 32 Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, without providing further details.
Turkish-backed factions in northern Syria resumed their fight with the SDF at the same time as the opposition armed factions were launching an offensive on November 27 that overthrew Syrian president Bashar al-Assad just 11 days later.
The pro-Ankara groups succeeded in capturing Kurdish-held Manbij and Tal Rifaat in northern Aleppo province, despite US-led efforts to establish a truce in the Manbij area.
The fighting has continued since, with mounting casualties.
During a visit to Damascus on Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said security of the Kurds is "essential for a peaceful Syria." She said this requires "an end to the fighting in the north and the integration of the Kurdish forces... in the Syrian security architecture."
The SDF controls vast areas of Syria's northeast, and parts of Deir Ezzor province in the east, where the Kurds created a semi-autonomous administration following the withdrawal of government forces during the civil war that began in 2011.
The group, which receives US backing, took control of additional territory after capturing it from the ISIS group.
Ankara accuses the main component of the SDF, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of affiliation with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long insurgency in southeastern Türkiye and is banned as a terrorist organization by the government.
The Turkish military regularly launches strikes against Kurdish fighters in Syria and neighboring Iraq, accusing them of being PKK-linked.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria's new leader and the head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, told Al Arabiya TV in late December that local Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the national army.
HTS led the coalition of opposition groups that overthrew Assad last month.