Turkish intel 'neutralizes' senior PKK member

ANKARA

The National Intelligence Agency (MİT) has "neutralized" senior PKK member Lokman İsmail in northern Iraq, security sources confirmed on Sept. 30.

Turkish authorities use the term "neutralize" to indicate that the individuals in question have either surrendered, been killed or captured.

Local media said İsmail was the leader of the PKK's "self-defense units."

He was responsible for organizing attacks on Turkish security forces in the eastern city of Şırnak between 2015 and 2016 and had ordered the bombing of two cars in the southern city of Adana’s Seyhan district in 2019, reports added.

Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry announced that six other PKK members had been "neutralized."

Four were targeted in northern Iraq's Gara region, while two others were hit in areas under Türkiye's Euphrates Shield operation in Syria, the ministry said in an X post on Sept. 30.

Authorities launched the Euphrates Shield operation in 2016 as part of a broader effort to combat PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union.

Other cross-border campaigns included Operation Olive Branch in 2018 and Operation Peace Spring in 2019.

"Our determined operations will continue until the last terrorist is neutralized," read the statement.

Turkish security forces are ramping up preparations to prevent PKK from establishing winter bases in the mountainous regions near the country's borders, officials said recently.