"The US occupation forces have transported tanker trucks loaded with stolen oil and vehicles carrying military equipment from the al-Jazeera region (of Hasakah province) towards Iraqi territory," said the official Syrian Arab News Agency on Saturday.
According to the report, the crude was extracted "from oil wells occupied by US forces in the al-Jazeera region."
The convoy of 40 vehicles that used the illegitimate al-Waleed crossing to enter Iraqi territory was "protected by US occupation armored vehicles," according to SANA, citing local sources.
Under the guise of combating the Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) Takfiri terrorist group, the US and its allies invaded Syria in 2014. Under former American president Donald Trump, Washington began stealing and smuggling Syrian crude from the oil-rich eastern Syrian province of Deir Ez-Zur and elsewhere.
SANA reported that on July 7, occupation forces used dozens of tanker trucks and other vehicles to smuggle stolen crude to Iraq via another illegitimate crossing on the outskirts of Hasakah, a northeastern Syrian city.
Damascus considers the US presence as an outright violation of its sovereignty, vowing that it will respond to the occupation in whatever way it sees fit.