Jan 18 (Reuters) – Syrian troops fighting U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces seized the Omar oil field, the country’s largest, and the Conoco gas field in the eastern Deir Zor province as allied Arab tribal forces advanced in the oil-rich area along the border with Iraq, officials and security sources said on Sunday.
The takeover of the oil fields that lie east of the Euphrates River — a main source of revenue for the Kurdish-led forces — was a major blow to the group, which officials said had deprived the state of resources used by the militia.
The Syrian army pressed ahead into predominantly Arab-populated areas of northeast Syria controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), despite U.S. calls to halt its advance.
A government source said Kurdish-led forces were overcome after advances led by the Arab tribal fighters, allowing the government and its tribal allies to move into a stretch of territory of more than 150 km along the eastern bank of the Euphrates stretching from Baghouz near the Iraqi border towards key towns including al-Shuhail and Busayra.
Late on Saturday, the army also took control of the northern city of Tabqa and its adjacent dam, as well as the major Freedom Dam, formerly known as the Baath Dam, west of Raqqa.
Syrian Kurdish authorities have not acknowledged the loss of those strategic sites, and it remained unclear whether fighting was still ongoing.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily and Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Writing by Suleiman al Khalidi Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
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