US began Syria invasion five years ago: Analyst

US President Donald Trump’s claim that Washington would never send troops to Syria might be correct on the surface but does not hide the fact that Washington has been waging a proxy war against Damascus since five years ago.

“When Donald Trump says that he is not going to actually invade Syria let’s be clear here that the United States has been through proxy armies and proxy mercenaries invading Syria for now nearing five years straight,” Scott Rickard, a former American intelligence linguist based in Florida, told Press TV on Wednesday.

Trump ruled out sending American troops to Syria to fight the government of President Bashar al-Assad in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, insisting that defeating Daesh (ISIL) remains Washington’s first priority.

Syria has been grappling with foreign-backed militants since 2011.

The comments were aimed at clearing the air amid speculations that last week's US missile attack against a Syrian airfield was the stepping stone for a major invasion.

Two US Navy destroyers fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea at al-Shayrat airbase in Homs province in western Syria on April 7. Trump said the attack was in response to an alleged chemical attack that killed over 80 people in Syria last week.

Rickard argued that despite Trump’s rhetoric, Washington is looking to partition the northeastern part of Syria through it proxies there.

“So, the Americans have already invaded Syria, they have already armed yet again another military force, whether or not the Americans continue to directly bomb Assad air force or Assad air bases or even Assad forces,” he argued. “That is yet to be seen.”

Referring to Russia’s reactions to the missile strike on the Syrian airfield, Rickard further argued that Moscow had called Washington’s “bluff” and was closely monitoring America’s movements.

Putin said afterwards that the strike had seriously hurt the Russo-American ties.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his visiting American counterpart Rex Tillerson in Moscow on Wednesday that the US should never repeat the "unlawful attack against Syria."

“The Americans have been called on what they have done, they have realized that what they did was based upon once again no evidence whatsoever and had responded to a false-flag, they may have even participated in the false-flag” given the media coverage, the analyst opined.

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