Sources in the al-Yaroubia countryside in al-Hasakah province told local media Sunday that 40 tankers of crude oil were shipped to Iraq from the al-Jazeera oil fields using the illegal Mahmoudiya border crossing.

The sources also said that a separate convoy of 55 oil tankers, also from the al-Jazeera fields, was smuggled through the same crossing within the same 24-hour window.

Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates in two identical letters on Sunday, which were addressed to Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres and the rotating President of the Security Council Ferit Hoxha said that the United States and its allied Takfiri terrorist groups continue to violate the country's sovereignty and plunder its wealth and strategic natural resources.

Damascus demanded that the US administration be held accountable for looting the country's riches and be obliged to compensate for the unlawful act.

Syria also called for an end to aggressive practices and violations of international principles and the UN Charter by US occupation troops, who are illegally present in the northeastern part of the country and the strategic southeastern region of al-Tanf.

The United States operates about a dozen illegal military bases in Syria, most of them concentrated in energy and food-rich areas of the country east of the Euphrates, which contain about nine-tenths of the war-torn nation’s oil and gas resources. Damascus estimates total damage to its hydrocarbons industry of over $100 billion.

The US military has stationed forces and equipment in northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming the deployment is aimed at preventing the oil fields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.

Damascus, however, maintains that the unauthorized US deployment is aimed at plundering the country’s rich mineral resources.

MNA/PR