The Turkish Ministry of Defense said that Defense Minister Hulusi Akar inspected the military units in Antakya, in the state of Hatay, near the border with Syria, while the Turkish bombardment was renewed on the sites of Kurdish militants in several areas in northern Syria.
The ministry added that Akar, accompanied by the Chief of Staff and commanders of the land and naval forces, also inspected the "Spring Shield" operations command center on Sunday, and received information about the latest field conditions.
During the visit, the Turkish minister said that the Turkish armed forces had destroyed what he described as the "desired terrorist corridor" in the south of his country, referring to areas controlled by Kurdish fighters.
Akar had said earlier that Turkey was in talks with Russia to use the airspace over northern Syria for a possible cross-border operation against the Kurdish People's Protection Units.
After the bombing that took place last November in Istanbul, which Ankara blamed on the Kurdish units and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Turkish army carried out air and artillery strikes on targets of Kurdish militants as part of the "Sword-Claw" operation, which resulted in the killing of many members of those units.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted at a ground military operation in northern Syria against the Kurdish units, while Washington and Moscow expressed their opposition to any military action there.
New bombing
Meanwhile, media outlets close to what is known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, whose main strength is the Kurdish units, said that the Turkish army bombed yesterday, Sunday, with artillery its positions in the countryside of Aleppo (north) and Raqqa (northeast).
The source added that the Turkish army also bombed sites in two villages in Hasakah countryside (northeast).
And at the end of last November, a Turkish official source confirmed to Al-Jazeera that Turkey had completed all the military and logistical preparations necessary to implement the possible ground operation in northern Syria.
The source said that the goal of the first phase of the military operation is to control Tal Rifaat, Manbij and Ayn al-Arab (Kobani), which are currently controlled by the Kurdish units.
Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed the need to cleanse the area from what he described as terrorists along the border to a depth of 30 kilometers, in line with the Sochi Agreement of 2019, stressing that his country is on its way to establishing a buffer zone along the border with Syria.