Twenty trucks take US military equipment out of Iraq, into Syria

The US has transferred its military equipment from Iraq to an area near the Syrian city of al-Hasakah, a report by Syria’s official news agency says.

A convoy of 20 trucks, loaded with US logistical materials used in military engineering fortifications, took the equipment to a place near al-Hasakah, SANA reported on Wednesday night.

The US forces havein recent monthsmoved thousands of trucks loaded with weapons, logistics and military equipment to al-Hasakah through illegal entry points, the report said.

SANA says Washington’s moves are aimed at reinforcing the US presence in Syria’s Jazira Region and plundering its oil and other natural resources.

The recent transfer of equipment comes as the US-led military coalition has recently startedevacuating its troops from a number of basesin Iraq, handing the bases over to the Iraqi military.

“There is a timetable between the Iraqi government and the international coalition forces for the latter to hand over the sites,” Spokesman for the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC), Major General Tahseen al-Khafaji, said on Tuesday.

The US-led coalition forces have already withdrawn from K1 Air Base, which lies 15 kilometers (9 miles) northwest of Kirkuk, and given it back to Iraqi forces during a ceremony.

The coalition claims that the transfer of US-led military forces had nothing to do with the missile attacks against Iraqi bases hosting the coalition forces, or the outbreak of COVID-19 – the disease caused by the highly contagious new coronavirus, in Iraq.

Iraqi lawmakers unanimously approved a bill on January 5, demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the United States from the country following the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) – better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, and their companions in a US airstrike authorized by President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport two days earlier.

Later on January 9, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the former Iraqi prime minister, called on the United States to dispatch a delegation to Baghdad tasked with formulating a mechanism for the move.