The US military escorted a convoy of 60 oil tankers that were transporting looted Syrian oil from Syria to Iraq, Syrian state news agency SANA reported on Thursday, citing sources indicating the contentious movement of oil-laden tanks.

A convoy of tanks filled with looted Syrian oil left through the illegal Al-Waleed border crossing toward US military bases in Iraq, the report said.

The damage inflicted upon Syria's oil and gas industry during the extended 11-year war of aggression waged on the country has been estimated at a staggering $107 billion, according to Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad's assessment last year. 

The United States, which illegally occupies resource-rich areas in Syria's north and northeast, should be held accountable for this substantial loss, Mekdad underlined.

The US military is occupying several areas within Syria, including the provinces of Raqqa, Deir Ezzor, and Al-Hasakah. These provinces house some of Syria's largest oil and gas fields.

The illegal occupation of these regions has been met with criticism from the Syrian authorities, with Damascus stressing that it infringes upon the nation's sovereignty and violates international laws.

US occupation forces last Thursday stole tons of Syrian oil from Al-Jazeera oil field and smuggled them into US occupation bases in Iraq.

Within an hour, local sources said, the US occupation forces managed to transfer hundreds of tons of stolen Syrian oil to Iraq through a 40-vehicle convoy through the illegal Al-Mahmudiyah border crossing.

"A convoy comprising 40 tankers loaded with stolen Syrian oil headed, via the illegitimate Al-Mahmudiya border crossing, towards the occupation bases in Iraq," SANA reported.

The Syrian Oil Ministry revealed that the US occupation forces loot the majority of Syria's oil, knowing that the daily production of the eastern oil fields is 80.3 thousand barrels.

The United States has been for years supporting the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militias, and the US-backed forces are currently occupying parts of the provinces of Al-Hasakah, Deir Ezzor, and Raqqa, where the largest Syrian oil and gas fields are located.

The actions carried out by the United States constitute state piracy with the aim of plundering Syria's oil resources and depriving the Syrian people of their own resources amid a harsh economic situation caused largely by the US occupiers.

US troops claim to be occupying the area in order to rid the region of terrorists; yet, the US has strategically implanted itself there for the purposes of stealing Syria's natural resources as well as destabilizing President Bashar Al-Assad's government. 

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