RNA - Scott Rickard, a former American intelligence linguist, made the remarks while discussing reports about Washington’s plans for sending more troops to Syria.
General Joseph L. Votel, the head of the US Central Command, said Wednesday that more American troops may be needed in Syria to step up the so-called campaign against Daesh.
The local US-backed forces in Syria “don’t have as good mobility, they don’t have as much firepower, so we have to be prepared to fill in some of those gaps for them… and we take the burden on ourselves for that aspect of the fight,” he told CBS.
“Unfortunately, this is not the right choice,” Rickard told Press TV on Wednesday, noting that hundreds of American soldiers were already “occupying” parts of Syria.
Washington has currently about 500 Special Operations troops in Syria. However, their activities have been limited to what the Pentagon describes as training and assisting Kurdish forces in their battle against Daesh and other terrorist groups.
The US-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) are said to be engaged in operations to drive terrorists from Raqqah, the de facto capital of Daesh in Syria. They dominate the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a multi-ethnic anti-Damascus alliance.
This is while Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist group and has objected any initiative to provide weapons to the outfit.
In an alleged bid to stop the advance of Kurdish forces and push Daesh from Turkey's border with Syria, Ankara has been leading a major military intervention in Syria since August 2016.
“We are looking at basically a fight for strategic ownership” in Syria between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and US-backed militant groups, Rickard added.
"I believe one of the reasons behind this is that what will be discovered in Raqqah ... will prove beyond any doubt that the United States has very much to do with the creation or facilitation of ISIS,” he explained.
Daesh terrorists were first trained by the CIA in 2012 to go into war against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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