According to reports by Syrian state news agency SANA, US forces have struck a deal with ISIS fighters. If the terrorist group hands over 50 tons of gold, they will safely be escorted across eastern Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province in exchange.
The stock of the precious metal is worth some $2.13 billion. It was plundered by the self-designated international “caliphate” during its reign of terror in Syria and Iraq from 2015 through to 2017.
According to the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah, local sources claim that US Army helicopters have already transferred the gold from the American base at Kobani, the Kurdish-controlled city which is situated in the Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria, lying immediately south of the border with Turkey.
Some of the gold stock was reportedly given to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The Syrian state media outlet reported that locals witnessed US helicopters airlifting the stockpile amounting to about 40 tons from the al-Dashisha area in Hasaka’s southern countryside earlier this month. The gold was purportedly looted by ISIS from Mosul in Iraq and other parts of Syria.
According to SANA, ISIS leaders were present to guide the US helicopters to the places where the gold had been stashed, “closing a deal by which Washington spared hundreds of the terror organization’s field leaders and experts”.
Similar reports were issued by UK-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR), alleging that the US and its Kurdish allies had been aiding ISIS fighters in exchange for gold.
“The US-led coalition forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) deliberately do not target the areas under the control of the ISIL terrorists and commanders in Eastern Euphrates in Deir el-Zour as they are trying to locate this treasure by forcing the ISIL militants to speak about its location after surrendering,” the SOHR stated.
Syrian and Russian media have both maintained that Washington’s claims of waging a war on ISIS were fraudulent, and that the US was instead collaborating with the terror group because during the destruction of ISIS-controlled Raqqa in Syria by a US-led coalition, a secret deal was struck with the group that granted members safe passage as it evacuated the area.
The secret deal, which ensured the survival and freedom of many top ISIS leaders and a number of foreign fighters, was uncovered by the BBC.
The US has continued to operate from its base in al-Tanf at the Syrian-Jordanian border against the wishes of the Syrian government on the pretext of combating ISIS. Their presence is in contravention of international law.
Moscow has repeatedly accused the United States of supporting freshly armed groups from the remains of ISIS in order to ambush Syrian troops before retreating into the US-controlled region.