During the war in Syria, the Russian Ministry of Defence repeatedly accused the US-led coalition of using US-controlled base camps to train jihadist militants being reorganised into the so-called ‘New Syrian Army’. Syrian and Iranian officials have similarly accused Washington of shady dealings with Syrian jihadist groups.
US-affiliated forces in Syria have ‘hijacked’ the illegal oil trade from Daesh (ISIS),* Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy, chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff, announced in a Monday briefing.
According to the senior officer, in addition to their criminal enterprises, US-trained militants have been training to destroy oil and gas infrastructure and to organise attacks against Syrian government forces.
Col. Gen. Rudskoy accused the US of providing various Arab and Kurdish militias with arms in exchange for assistance in the illegal trafficking of Syrian oil to the East of the Euphrates. Specifically, Russian intelligence has accused US-controlled entities of organising the illegal production and sale of Syrian oil from the al-Omar, Conaco and Tanak oil fields on the Euphrates River’s east bank.