While Turkish forces have been shelling Kurdish armed factions across the border for a week, Turkish officials said that the Army needs only a few days to be ready for a ground incursion into northern Syria, and that a decision on this matter is likely to be taken at a cabinet meeting today .

Turkish howitzers have been shelling YPG targets daily for a week, while warplanes have been carrying out airstrikes.

The Turkish escalation comes after a deadly bombing in Istanbul two weeks ago that Ankara blamed on the Kurdish people's Protection Units (YPG).

While the Kurdish group denied responsibility for the attack, it sometimes responded to cross-border attacks with mortar shelling.

According to a senior official, "the Turkish Armed Forces need only a few days to become almost fully ready".

The official stressed that the process "will not take long to start. It just depends on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issuing the order, " he said.

It is worth noting that Turkey has previously carried out military incursions into Syria against the Kurdish people's Protection Units (YPG), as it considers it a wing of the banned Kurdistan Workers ' Party (PKK), which is classified as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Erdogan has also made previous statements in which he said that Turkey would launch a ground operation at the appropriate time to secure its southern border.

In May, Erdogan announced that Turkey would soon launch a military operation against the Kurdish people's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, but such an operation did not materialize at that time.

The first Turkish official said that a ground operation targeting the areas of Manbij, Kobani, Ain Al-Arab and Tal Rifaat has become inevitable to connect the areas that came under Turkey's control in 2016.

The official also said that Ankara had contacts with Moscow and Washington about its military activities.

However, the United States has informed Turkey, a NATO member, that it has serious concerns that the military escalation will affect the goal of combating the terrorist organization "Daesh" in Syria.

Russia also asked Turkey to refrain from launching an all-out ground offensive.