Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has eliminated a so-called ringleader of the PKK terrorist group in charge of Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah province, security sources said Wednesday.
Ömer Fırat, code-named “Andok Tolhildan,” and two others with him, Irfan Zengi, an Iranian national code-named “Raman Renas,” and Hidayet Resuli, code-named “Cengaver Mikayil,” were eliminated a precision strike by MIT, sources said.
As a result of Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) operations in northern Iraq, PKK members have withdrawn to Sulaymaniyah, which they consider a safe zone, but the province’s rural areas are no longer safe for the terrorist group, sources added.
The PKK, which has massacred over 40,000 people in Türkiye in a four-decadelong terror campaign, is not designated a terrorist organization in Iraq but is banned from launching operations against Türkiye from Iraqi territory.
Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq.
Ankara maintains dozens of military bases there, and it regularly launches operations against the PKK, which uses a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil.
The PKK also occupies Sinjar, Makhmour and has a foothold in Sulaymaniyah, which sits in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous north controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), where the central Iraqi government has little influence.
Türkiye often criticizes the PKK’s gaining footing in Sulaymaniyah and warns that “further measures” would be taken if the city’s administration continues to tolerate terrorists.
Türkiye’s cross-border operations into northern Iraq have been a source of tension with its southeastern neighbor for years.
Ankara wants Baghdad’s cooperation in eliminating the terrorist group “at its roots” and preventing the formation of a terror corridor along its borders.
As a result, Baghdad labeled the group a banned organization in March and set up two military bases in the Zakho region in April.
In another step against the PKK, the Iraqi government issued a directive for state institutions to refer to the PKK as a “banned organization” in official correspondence, local media reports said Tuesday.
Last week, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan renewed Türkiye’s pledge to eradicate the PKK as he answered a question on an all-out summer offensive in Iraq he had hinted at earlier.
