Syria condemns the “illegal” visit of the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff to the northeast of the country

March 5 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Syrian government has expressed this Sunday its condemnation of the “illegal” visit of the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, Mark Milley, to a US base located in the northeast of the country.

“Syria strongly condemns the illegal visit by the US Chief of Staff to an illegal US military base in northeastern Syria and claims it is a flagrant violation of its sovereignty, sanctity and territorial integrity,” the Foreign Ministry said. Syrian in a statement.

Damascus has pointed out that the visit was supposedly to assess the effectiveness of the war against the Islamic State, but has argued that “as the international community knows well, the Islamic State is an affiliate of the American secret services”, in the words of a spokesman. Syrian government quoted by the official news agency, SANA.

This source also recalled that in recent days more than 60 civilians have been killed in actions by the jihadist group “in full view of the invading US forces” present in northeastern Syria. He has also criticized that the Americans “are stealing Syrian oil and wheat”: “in the last nine days they have stolen more than 150 trucks of Syrian oil.”

He has also denounced US support for “terrorist and separatist militias”, in reference to the Kurdish-Arab militias of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Milley has made his first visit to Syria since his appointment as the top military officer of the US Armed Forces and has visited the 900 soldiers deployed in the northeast of the country.

He has also been interested in the repatriation process of the more than 60,000 relatives and Islamic State militants — including 25,000 minors — held in the Al Hol camp, according to an official statement from his office.