US convoy transfers missile launch systems from Iraq to eastern Syria
The US military has reportedly dispatched truckloads of ammunition and logistical equipment to Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah, as Washington steps up attempts to further plunder oil reserves and natural resources in the Arab nation.
Local activist Khaled al-Hasakawi said a US military convoy carrying four self-propelled surface-to-air Avenger missile systems entered the Syrian territories on Monday through the illegal al-Waleed border crossing, and headed towards the US-run airfield near the city of Rmeilan.
He added that Avenger provides mobile, short-range “air defense” protection for ground units against cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, low-flying fixed-wing aircraft as well as helicopters, is loaded with FIM-92 Stinger missiles, and has an operational range of 443 kilometers (275 miles).
Hasakawi further noted that one of the short-range air defense systems was later transferred to the illegal US military base at Kharab al-Jir Airport in the northeastern city of Hasakah, while the rest were shifted to al-Shadadi base, as well as US military installations at al-Omar oil field and Conoco gas field in neighboring Dayr al-Zawr province.
A salvo of missiles has targeted a military base in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr amid rising anti-US sentiments over Washington’s support for the bloody Israeli onslaught on Gaza.
The report comes as the US military had earlier dispatched a convoy of 40 vehicles carrying arms and logistic supplies to areas controlled by the allied Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militant group.
The US has tried to justify its illegal military presence in eastern Syria by persistently claiming that its troops are there to prevent a resurgence of the notorious Daesh terrorists, widely believed to have been trained and supplied by American forces and a despotic Arab regime allied with Washington.
Damascus, meanwhile, has repeatedly blamed Washington for deliberately waging an economic war on Syria by controlling 90 percent of the country’s oil resources and its finest agricultural lands, while imposing brutal sanctions on the country and preventing the import of everything from medicines and food to emergency energy supplies.
Syrian authorities, however, have also expressed confidence that Damascus will soon restore their control over all of its occupied territories. They have further urged the country’s ethnic Kurds – who have trusted the American pledge of protection against Daesh terrorists – that Washington would soon abandon them after plundering the nation’s resources.
