ISTANBUL: Turkey is more determined than ever to secure its Syrian border from attacks by Kurdish forces, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday, insisting that a ground operation would start “at the most convenient time.”

Ankara launched a series of air strikes as part of Operation Claw-Sword on Sunday, following a bomb attack in Istanbul on November 13 that killed six people and wounded 81.

“Our operations with planes, cannons and drones are only the beginning. Our determination to secure all our southern border… with a safe zone is stronger today than ever before,” Erdogan told ruling AKP lawmakers in parliament.

Turkey could launch ground operation in Syria: Erdogan

“While we press ahead with air raids uninterrupted, we will crack down on terrorists also by land at the most convenient time for us,” he said.

Turkey blamed the Istanbul attack on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is blacklisted as a terror group by the European Union and the United States.

The PKK, which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, denied any role in the bombing – the deadliest in five years after a spate of attacks in Turkey between 2015 and 2017.