this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2024
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  • US occupying forces in northern Syria are continuing to plunder natural resources and farmland, a practice ongoing since 2011
  • Recently, US troops smuggled dozens of tanker trucks loaded with Syrian crude oil to their bases in Iraq.
  • The fuel and convoys of Syrian wheat were transported through the illegal settlement of Mahmoudia.
  • Witnesses report a caravan of 69 tankers loaded with oil and 45 with wheat stolen from silos in Yarubieh city.
  • Similar acts of looting occurred on the 19th of the month in the city of Hasakeh, where 45 tankers of Syrian oil were taken out by US forces.
  • Prior to the war and US invasion, Syria produced over 380 thousand barrels of crude oil per day, but this has drastically reduced to only 15 thousand barrels per day.
  • The country’s oil production now covers only five percent of its needs, with the remaining 95 percent imported amidst difficulties due to the US blockade.
  • The US and EU blockade prevents the entry of medicines, food, supplies, and impedes technological and industrial development in Syria.
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[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

If I go digging, am I going to find out that this is an anti-Kurdish hit piece trying to manufacture consent so Assad can use chemical weapons on Rojava?

[–] AMDIsOurLord@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Didn't the Assad chemical weapons turn out to be another Kuwait Propaganda moment lmao (some other group was actually responsible)

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[–] BigPotato@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Just like everything on SANA, yes.

Unfortunately, there's basically four flavors of propaganda in the region and that's it.

[–] cyclohexane@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Why not evaluate the information for what it is rather than checking if it belongs to your preferred camp of propaganda or not?

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[–] Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 year ago

So who's growing the wheat? As I understand it, it's an ongoing practice for over a decade. So someone is growing wheat every year only for the US military to swoop in and harvest it? Or do they ambush trucks with already harvested wheat? Article doesn't seem to mention the hows, focusing on oil. But oil is a bit different from wheat

[–] Granite@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Oh great, we’re the space Nazis from the awful rebel moon movies. Go figure.

[–] BigPotato@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Look, this article runs every few months from the Syrian regime. To be blunt, the trucks bring in Wheat and probably arms or something else they shouldn't. The SDF (formerly called the YPJ and YPG) runs oil refineries and sells the oil as a means of finding themselves. The US... Well, 'Coalition' supplies them with the refineries.

Why all these steps? Turkyie hates the YPJ/YPG but Turkyie is part of the Coalition against ISIL. The 'SDF' gets bombed by Turkyie but the SDF also runs the largest ISIL prison in the region. So Turkyie and Syria don't team up against the SDF, the SDF doesn't get full US support, and resupply trucks have to 'sneak'.

Everyone in the region has stakes in not letting them break out. Iraq doesn't want it, Syria doesn't want it, the US and Coalition don't want it but, outside of the US, no one can publicly back the SDF and save face with their regional counterparts. The US makes sure the SDF has food and funds, everyone gets to keep the ISIL and Refugee camps 'running' and no one has to support the SDF and lose face with their local parties.

I'd call it shades of gray but it's more like shades of blood...

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

There is absolutely no difference between what US is doing in Syria and what Russia is doing in Ukraine. Yet, all of a sudden it's a shades of gray.

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[–] TheChurn@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This would've been more believable if they left off the wheat. Oil I can imagine, but no fucking way are US troops stealing wheat of all things.

Do they think there is a mill at their base? What the fuck would they use it for? It has negative value.

[–] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wheat is a commodity like any other crop, and just like any other commodity, it has value. Also it's even more profitable when its stolen since you don't even have to invest in production costs.

[–] TheChurn@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Not in the middle of a fucking desert, on a military base, far away from any potential market.

Unless you are going to claim that the soldiers stole wheat to sell to locals, for local currency, that they can then use to.... do what exactly?

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