Senior PKK terrorist ‘neutralized’ in northern Iraq

ANKARA

Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) has ‘neutralized’ a senior PKK terrorist in an operation in northern Iraq, security sources have said.

Sileman Şemo Yusuf, code-named Azad, was neutralized when his vehicle was targeted in the Bab Silo region in the Sinjar area, which is controlled by the terrorist group PKK/KCK.

According to the sources, Yusuf was the special forces commander of the PKK in the Bab Silo region. Back in August 2021, the MİT also neutralized another senior PKK terrorist, Hasan Said Hasan, in an operation in the Sinjar region.

In December 2021, the spy agency brought two PKK terrorists, who had been operating in northern Iraq, to Turkey.
The PKK uses its hides out in northern Iraq to launch attacks in Turkey. The Turkish military often hits the PKK targets in northern Iraq and northern Syria in cross-border operations. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the E.U. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot. Separately, the Defense Ministry said yesterday, security forces apprehended nine people, who were trying to flee to Greece.

Among those captures in the northwestern province of Edirne, were two PKK/KCK and two FETÖ terrorists, the ministry said in a post on Twitter. The FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Fethullah Gülen are responsible for the botched July 15, 2016 coup attempt. The failed coup left 251 people dead and more than 2,700 others wounded.

The MİT recently brought Nuri Gökhan Bozkır, who is a suspect in the assassination of academic Necip Hablemitoğlu, to Turkey from Ukraine.
Hablemitoğlu, known for his research and books on FETÖ, was killed in 2002 in front of his house. Bozkır had been living in Ukraine over the past couple of year.