US establishing airport within oilfield in Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr province: Report

The Hajin Military Council in the province, affiliated to the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), announced the news, Arabic-language Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al-Anba reported on Friday.

According to the report, Washington is establishing the airport in the al-Omar oilfield base, which is one of the largest military bases of the US forces in the Arab country.

The development comes on the heel of the Pentagon announcement that a US firm is exploiting Syrian oil without authorization from Damascus, and that the US troops deployed to the Arab country do not “protect” its oil reserves from Daesh attacks as previously ordered by former US president Donald Trump.

During the past several months, the US has sent hundreds of trucks carrying military and logistical equipment to the northeastern province of Hasakah.

Furthermore, Washington has also been redeploying troops to the oilfields controlled by US-backed SDF militants in eastern Syria since October 2019.

Syria, which has not authorized the presence of the US military in its territory, says Washington is “plundering” the country’s oil.

The presence of US forces in eastern Syria has particularly irked the civilians, and local residents have on several occasions stopped American military convoys entering the region. 

Since January, the US forces have brought 10 military support convoys from neighboring Iraq to their military bases in eastern Syria via the al-Walid border crossing in Hasakah.