MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th July, 2022) Syrian checkpoint military guards and residents of al-Salihiya village on the outskirt of the northeastern city of Qamishli, have managed to push back a convoy of five US armored vehicles, the Syrian Arab news Agency (SANA) reported on Tuesday.
The US convoy included one car of Kurdish militia from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, the report said, citing local sources.
A similar episode of local resistance took place last Tuesday, as local residents prevented a US military convoy from entering al-Mujaibra village.
Syria has been engulfed in an armed conflict since 2011, with President Bashar Assad's forces fighting different insurgent groups. In late 2017, the Islamic State (IS, a terrorist group banned in Russia) was declared defeated in the country, but counterterrorism operations have continued in an effort to eliminate remaining cells.
Washington has supported Kurdish armed formations in Syria despite Assad's protests. US forces are currently controlling parts of the provinces of Al-Hasakah, Deir Ez-Zor and Raqqa, where the largest Syrian oil and gas fields are located. Damascus calls the presence of the US military on its territory an occupation and state piracy with the aim of siphoning off its oil resources.
