SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Turkey’s army needs just a few days to be ready for a ground incursion into northern Syria Reuters Monday cited senior Turkish officials as saying.
“Such a decision may come at a cabinet meeting on Monday,” Turkish officials added, according to Reuters, as Turkish forces bombarded a Kurdish militia across the border.
Mortars fired daily from Turkey have struck Kurdish YPG targets for a week, while warplanes have renewed airstrikes on the Kurdish-held territories in Syria.
“The Turkish Armed Forces needs just a few days to become almost fully ready,” one senior official said, adding that Turkey-allied Syrian rebel fighters were ready for such an operation in just a few days.
“It won’t take long for the operation to begin,” he said. “It depends only on the president giving the word.”
Turkey has previously launched military incursions in Syria against the YPG, regarding it as a wing of the “outlawed” Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey, the United States and European Union designate a terrorist group.
“All the preparations are complete. It’s now a political decision,” another Turkish official told Reuters, also requesting anonymity ahead of the meeting.
Since 2016 Ankara has mounted three military incursions against the Kurdish YPG militants whom it considered as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK by Turkey, “threatening” its national security from its southern borders.
