On Monday afternoon, the Turkish government held a meeting where a ground operation in northern Syria was one of the items on the agenda.
The message from the Turkish administration is that it only takes a couple of days to complete the final preparations before an operation can be put into action.
- It doesn't take long for the operation to start.
It just depends on when the president speaks, a senior official in the Turkish administration told Reuters ahead of the meeting.
Attack against YPG
According to the informant, the Turkish operation would likely target the cities of Manbij, Kobani and Tel Rifat in northern Syria to link these with areas that Turkey and its allies in Syria took control of in 2016.
For the past week, Turkey has fired long-range weapons at targets linked to the Kurdish YPG militia and carried out airstrikes in northern Syria.
The Kurdish militia has responded with shelling.
The military escalation started two weeks ago when six people were killed when a bomb exploded in Istanbul.
Turkey has accused the PKK of being behind the explosion, but the PKK itself has denied involvement in the act.
Strong reactions
The Kurdish YPG militia has long been allied with NATO in the fight against the Islamic State in northern Syria.
However, Turkey believes that there is a link between the YPG and the PKK.
Both the US and Russia have expressed concern about Turkey's plans.
- It will be met with protests by the USA, Russia and the EU.
But the question is whether it will be enough because Turkey has said that there is no country that can stand in the way of an invasion, says SVT's Turkey correspondent Tomas Thorén.
Hear SVT's Turkey correspondent about why Turkey is planning this in the clip above.