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Conflict in Syria

Syria’s SANA news agency reports rocket attack on US base in Deir ez-Zor

Еhe attack targeted a US base near the Conoco oil field controlled by US troops and Kurdish units

© Darko Bandic/AP

BEIRUT, August 19. /TASS/. Several rockets exploded on Tuesday on the territory of a US military base in the north of Syria’s Deir ez-Zor governorate, the SANA news agency reported.

According to the agency, the attack targeted a US base near the Conoco oil field controlled by US troops and Kurdish units. No information about casualties is available so far.

This is the first-ever attack on one of the 12 military facilities, created by the United States since 2015 in Syria’s governorates of al-Hasakah, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor. US forces, together with Kurdish groups, control oil-rich areas on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river, including the oil fields of Al-Omar, Tanak, Al-Jafra and Conoco, which accounted for 80% of all oil produced in Syria before the war broke out.

Late last year, US President Donald Trump approved the plan of US troop withdrawal from Syria, according to which only a few hundreds of US soldiers will remain in the country. Their main task will be to ensure control over oilfields in the northeast of the country.

Meanwhile, Damascus views the US military presence on its territory as an "illegal occupation accompanied by plundering of natural resources that belong to the people of Syria."

On August 17, helicopters of the US Armed Forces opened fire at a Syrian government army checkpoint near the settlement of Tel Dahab in the al-Hasakah governorate. One Syrian servicemen was killed and two injured. According to SANA, the strike took place after Syrian soldiers refused to let a US patrol pass through one of its checkpoints.

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Syrian conflict

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