An operation by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) “neutralized” Zeynep Eyveri, a terrorist in charge of the PKK terrorist group’s so-called Women’s Defense Force in Iraq, security sources said Wednesday.
Eyveri, known under the alias "Aryen Are," was leading the terrorist group’s units active on the Iranian-Iraqi border, sources said. She was under surveillance by Turkish intelligence and her latest location was a rural part of Sulaymaniyah in Iraq’s north.
Eyveri joined the PKK in Iran in 2005 and rose in the ranks of the terrorist group’s units composed of women.
Security sources said Eyveri was orchestrating attacks targeting Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) personnel in northern Iraq and training female members of the PKK. MIT’s field agents pinpointed the location of Eyveri in Sulaymaniyah, which has been a hotbed of PKK activity in recent years. Sources say the operation is part of Türkiye’s counterterrorism policy to wipe out the terrorism “at its source” in Iraq and Syria.
Earlier, MIT destroyed 50 strategic PKK/YPG terrorist targets in northern Syria as part of operations launched following terrorist attacks against Turkish troops in the north of Iraq, which killed 12 soldiers last week.
Intelligence units targeted the terrorist group’s facilities, which produced their gear, explosives and daily necessities.
Field agents detected the PKK’s military, economic and logistics facilities in the Qamishli, Amouda and Ain al-Arab (Kobani) regions. The terrorists operated these facilities under civilian disguise, security sources said, adding that intelligence units prepared an operation to target these facilities with pinpoint accuracy. Sources said around 50 targets were destroyed in the operation. MIT paid utmost attention to ensure no civilians, civilian infrastructure or residences were harmed during the operation, sources added.
The strategic facilities destroyed in the operation housed several senior PKK terrorists, according to sources, who noted that the operation made a significant contribution to eliminating threats against Türkiye’s border security.
Türkiye has intensified its airstrikes against the PKK in Iraq and northern Syria, where it’s fighting the YPG, the PKK’s U.S.-backed local offshoot, in retaliation for the deaths of 12 Turkish soldiers in Iraq over the weekend.
On Friday, Turkish officials said the PKK terrorists attempted to infiltrate a Turkish base in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region. They said six Turkish soldiers were killed in the ensuing firefight. The following day, six more Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with PKK militants.
In response, Ankara launched strikes on dozens of sites associated with the PKK in Iraq and Syria, where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed Türkiye would pay “whatever the cost” to prevent the emergence of a “terrorist structure.”
The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union – is responsible for over 40,000 civilian and security personnel deaths in Türkiye during an almost four-decadelong campaign of terror.
Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq.
Ankara maintains dozens of military bases there, and it regularly launches operations against the PKK, which holds a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil province. However, the area is under de jure control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
