Turkish security forces have eliminated five members of the PKK terrorist group, including one in the most wanted red category, in eastern Türkiye, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced Thursday.
"Five terrorists were eliminated in the rural areas of the Doğubayazıt district in Ağrı province and Palamut village in the Hasankeyf district of Batman province," Yerlikaya said on X.
One of the five eliminated in the operations was a terrorist named Yılmaz Öner, Yerlikaya noted.
Öner, also known by his code name "Şehmus Malazgirt," was wanted in the red category of the Interior Ministry's color-coded list. The list is divided into five categories, with red as the most wanted, followed by blue, green, orange and gray.
Three other terrorists were wanted in the orange category.
Yerlikaya said Öner had played a role in a total of 18 terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of 27 security personnel and four civilians and injured 68 security personnel and two civilians.
It was also determined that Öner gave the order for those terrorist attacks to take place, he added.
Ağrı and Batman, along with other eastern cities like Şırnak, Tunceli, Diyarbakır and Hakkari, were once synonymous with acts of terrorism where the PKK concentrated its attacks since its inception in the 1980s.
With no shelter in urban locations, the PKK takes advantage of mountainous territories in Türkiye’s southeast, where its members spend winter in remote caves. Turkish security forces regularly target PKK hideouts in these regions.
Ankara boasts of having suffered no major terrorist attacks on Turkish soil since 2016.
Terrorists from the PKK and other groups, such as its Syrian wing, the YPG, and Daesh, rely on a network of members and supporters in Türkiye.
Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq, including a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil.
Türkiye has, over the past 25 years, operated several dozen military bases in northern Iraq in its war against the PKK and has been conducting airstrikes as part of “Claw” operations since 2022 to demolish terrorist lairs and prevent the formation of a terror corridor along its borders.
Defense Ministry on Thursday said five more PKK terrorists were eliminated in the northern Iraqi region of Hakurk where Operation Claw-Lock is taking place.
Ankara has asked Iraq for more cooperation in combating the PKK. Baghdad labeled the group a banned organization in March and set up two military bases in the northern Zakho region in April.
Ankara plans a new swoop in on the PKK militants this summer and says Iraqi cooperation is paramount to eradicating the group "at its roots."
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 to achieve a so-called Kurdish self-rule in southeastern regions and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, as well as the United States and the European Union.
Turkish forces have eliminated at least 1,151 PKK terrorists since Jan. 1 this year, including 521 in Iraq and 630 others in Syria’s north.
