Arab residents of the oil-rich Deir Ezzor area in Syria have been protesting for weeks against the U.S.-backed Kurdish forces that control the region east of the Euphrates river, with protests becoming violent in recent days and angry protesters disrupting convoys of truckloads of oil from the nearby fields. The protests, which started at the end of April, call for the end of the Kurdish rule in the area—which the Arabs say is an “occupation”—and the Kurdish forces and militias to stop selling the oil from the area and stop robbing the Arab population of its oil. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by the United States expelled Islamic State from the Deir Ezzor area at the end of 2017, and have been in control of the oil-rich province since then. The Arab residents in the area, however, want the Kurdish forces to stop selling the oil pumped from […]