MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. The residents of a small Syrian village in the countryside of Qamishli intercepted a US military convoy that had attempted to pass through the village, forcing it to retreat, the Syrian news agency SANA reports.

The incident occurred in Abu Qasaib. Local villagers stopped a convoy of five military vehicles and forced the US military personnel to return to the base.

A similar incident occurred at the beginning of April in Hamo, near Qamishli. Local sources at the village told SANA’s reporter that a convoy of five US vehicles was heading to Hamo village, but was forced to retreat when locals gathered at a Syrian Arab Army checkpoint near the village and prevented the convoy from passing with the help of the army personnel. At the end of March civilians in another border village prevented a convoy of eleven US military vehicles from passing through their community.

On October 9, 2019 Turkey launched an operation codenamed Peace Spring with the aim of creating a buffer zone in northern Syria, where, Ankara said, Syrian refugees would be able to return from Turkey. At the end of October US President Donald Trump declared the pullout of US military from the area of the Turkish military operation, but at the same time added that Washington was determined to retain control of oil fields in the country’s northeast. Arab and Turkish media subsequently said more than once that the United States was regrouping its forces in the northeast of Syria.