MISSILES were fired at a United States military base at the al-Omar oil field in Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria, on Sunday evening, the second such attack in less than a week.

A number of rockets targeted the occupying forces at the base. No casualties were reported.

The attacks took place in the wake of US drone strikes in Syria and Iraq last week, which Washington claimed was an act of self-defence.

A child was killed in that attack along with four members of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, an Iranian-backed militia that has been carrying out joint anti-Isis operations with the Iraqi military.

Damascus has accused the US of continuing to steal Syrian resources, particularly oil and wheat, while subjecting the people to crippling sanctions as part of the Caesar Act introduced last year.

Local sources said that a column of 45 trucks loaded with wheat and oil left Ramlan in Syria’s north-eastern Hasakah province via an illegal crossing into northern Iraq on Sunday evening. It followed some 37 trucks also alleged to be shipping stolen oil making the same journey the previous day.

The Syrian government said that it had taken extra measures to provide water to the people of Hasakah province after Turkey cut off supply from the Alouk plant for an eighth consecutive day.

Ankara, whose forces occupy whole swathes of north-eastern Syria along with its jihadist allies, regularly cuts off water in the region, using it as a weapon in its war on the country’s Kurdish population.

Hassan al-Shamhoud, chairman of the newly formed Special Committee for Drinking Water in Hasakah province, said that tanks are now supplying water in people’s homes and also providing drinking water on a daily basis.