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US seizes UN aid allocated for Rukban refugees, distributes it among terrorists: Russia, Syria

In this file picture, Syrian refugees from Rukban camp line up to visit a UN-operated medical clinic on the Jordanian-side for checkups. (Photo by AFP)

Syrian and Russian officials have warned that the United States is exploiting the deteriorating humanitarian situation at the Rukban refugee camp to seize UN aid consignments and distribute it among allied Takfiri militants after it turned the camp, located close to Syria’s border with Jordan, into a center for training terrorists.

“As usual, the United States hopes to acquire the aid in order to support terrorist groups operating under its command in the vicinity of al-Rukban camp. The camp has indeed become a seedbed for training extremist terrorists,” the Russian and Syrian Joint Coordination Committees on Repatriation of Syrian Refugees said in a joint statement.

The statement further noted that the US continues to impede all efforts aimed at the closure of the camp, prevents return of its residents to areas liberated from the grips of Takfiri terrorists and does not allow the life there to return to normal.

The joint committees then reiterated the Damascus government’s readiness to receive all Rukban camp residents, who are taken hostage by the US and its terrorist mercenaries, ensure their security, and provide them with decent living conditions.

This is not the first time that aid cargos delivered by the UN and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to al-Rukban are seized by Us forces or US-backed militants. 

Russia and Syria have on numerous occasions also criticized the US for blocking aid deliveries to the refugee camp. 

The Rukban camp, described by Russian and Syrian authorities as the "death camp," is reportedly home to some 25,000 internally-displaced Syrians, mostly women and children.

Just a handful of humanitarian aid convoys have reached the camp in recent years.

In a joint statement on March 28 last year, the interagency coordination headquarters of Russia and Syria, attributed the humanitarian crisis in Rukban refugee camp to the illegal occupation of the area by American forces.

“We believe that the American side’s reluctance to exert influence on their [allied] militants in order to ensure unhindered departure of people from the camp and safe activities of humanitarian representatives in the At-Tanf zone is a clear evidence of its intention,” the statement noted at the time.

The camp lies within a 55-kilometer zone occupied by the US around its military base in the Syrian town of At-Tanf.

The headquarters stated that the US military is using Rukban as an “assembly line for training extremists.”

US military forces smuggle wheat crops from Syria’s Hasakah into Iraq

Meanwhile, a convoy of dozens of US trucks has left Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah for the neighboring Iraq carrying tens of tons of grain.

Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing local sources in Rmelan town, reported that a convoy of 45 military vehicles loaded with wheat and barley crops departed Kharab al-Jir military base in the countryside of al-Malikiya town, and headed towards Iraqi territories after having passed through al-Walid border crossing.

Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told SANA on January 17 that a convoy of 20 US military trucks laden with grain from farmlands in northeastern Syria had departed the area to northern Iraq via al-Walid crossing.

A week earlier, the US military had taken out a convoy of trucks carrying barley from Syrian lands to northern Iraq via the same border crossing.


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