PKK ringleader neutralized in N Syria

ANKARA

The Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) has neutralized Muhsin Yağan, a senior PKK/YPG terrorist who was the local leader of northern Syria’s Qamishli province, Demirören News Agency has reported.

The MİT initiated the operation after it was determined that Yağan was responsible for many terrorist acts and that he gave new attack instructions on the borderline against the Turkish forces.

Following his activities in the eastern province of Şırnak’s rural areas, Yağan, who joined the PKK in the 1990s, was a local leader in Iraq’s Qandil, Zap, Gara, Metina and Mahmur regions, as well as Iran’s Kelareş, before he was assigned to be the local leader of Qamishli in 2020 by the order of PKK commander Murat Karayılan.

Accelerating its operations against the senior PKK members, the MİT neutralized Yusif Mehmud Rebani, code-named Rezan Cavit, another local leader operating in the Amuda and al-Darbasiyah regions in northern Syria, on Aug. 6.

Rebani, who was found to have joined the PKK in the 1990s, was among the founding members of HPG, a military extension of PKK, in 2014 in Iraq’s Kandil region and also took part in the activities of PJAK, the Iranian-based offshoot of the PKK, in 2010.

Rebani, who organized many actions against the Turkish army in Iraq’s Haftanin region in 2018, before the Claw operations, was assigned as the local leader for the Amuda and al-Darbasiyah, the neighboring regions of Rasulayn, which was cleared of terrorists with the Peace Spring Operation in 2021.

“Neutralized” is a term used by the Turkish military and officials to indicate terrorists were either killed, wounded, or captured. The ministry ranks those included on the list in five color-coded categories from red (most wanted) to blue, green, orange and grey.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S. and the European Union, has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.