MİT neutralizes main PKK ringleader in northern Iraq’s Gara region

ANKARA 

The Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) has neutralized İzzettin İnan, one of PKK’s main ringleaders, in northern Iraq during a field operation, the security units have announced.

“This is one of the most important blows to the terrorist organization,” Abdullah Ağar, a security expert, told national broadcaster CNN Türk on July 17.

According to local media, MİT surveyed İnan, codenamed “Dersim Malatya,” for years.

Prioritizing him as “a strategic target,” MİT charged its field agents in northern Iraq’s Gara region.

After months of work, the field agents approached İnan and “won his confidence,” and “got informed about all his actions.”

MİT gave a start to the operation, in an undeclared time, to neutralize İnan as he was “about to make meetings with two PKK ringleaders.

The meetings were about PKK members’ training, but, MİT agents “neutralized a group of terrorists, including İnan.”

The local media did not specify the timing of the field operation.

“The local leaders of the PKK are now aware that they will be killed,” Ağar said. “This is one of the most important achievements in the fight against terror.”

When asked about the importance of the operation, Ağar pointed out the “importance of Gara.”

“PKK sees Gara as a liberated zone. A ringleader, trained in Syria for years, is neutralized in Gara. From this point of view, it is a crucial operation,” he stated.

Calling İnan’s death a “significant message to the leaders of the terror organization,” Ağar said, “MİT has achieved another phenomenal success.”

According to Coşkun Başbuğ, another security expert, the first ring of the PKK is on the brink of collapse.

“Many of them are trying to recover from shock,” Başbuğ said. “The fight against terror has spread to a wider zone. These people, [like İnan], were considered ‘uncatchable.’ This is why this operation is so outstanding.”

MİT has been conducting surgical attacks against the PKK local leaders in northern Iraq and Syria since May.

Following a series of operations, MİT has recently “neutralized” Hanım Demir, a female terrorist codenamed “Berfin Nurhak,” in Gara on July 4.