PKK encryption team caught in northern Iraq
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet
Turkish forces tracked the militants for nearly six months before catching them inside a cave in northern Iraq, in an operation assisted by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.DHA photo
Turkish security forces captured five encryption specialists from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) during a cross-border raid about 10 kilometers over the border with northern Iraq on March 11.Turkish forces tracked the militants for nearly six months before catching them inside a cave in northern Iraq, in an operation assisted by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The militants initially fired back at the troops but later surrendered, according to reports.
Militants Azat E., Adil E., Ayhan E., Neçirvan B. and Rojbin T. have confessed to being the organization’s encryption experts and to relaying encoded messages from Mount Kandil in northern Iraq to militants in the countryside and urban cells inside Turkey.
The militants were also involved two separate incidents in which they relayed commands from Mount Kandil during PKK raids in southeastern Turkey. The first raid, in Diyarbakır’s Silvan district on July 14, resulted in the deaths of 13 Turkish troops, and the second attack killed 14 troops in Hakkari’s Çukurca district on Aug. 17.
The operation also marks the first time that special operations police units have crossed the border into northern Iraq.
