The PKK terrorist group continues to operate in the northern Iraqi region of Makhmour despite announcing its evacuation from all camps, Turkish security sources said Wednesday.
Murat Karayılan, the de-facto leader of the PKK, announced on Oct. 19 that the group had "completed its mission" in the Makhmour camp and, therefore, decided to withdraw under the influence of "no third party."
However, the statement was a decoy for the organization to protect itself from Turkish counterterrorism operations in Makhmour and surrounding regions, which have successfully eliminated PKK targets for years now, sources said.
These offensives have pushed the PKK to implement new measures in northern Iraq.
The group further sent its terrorists from these camps to Türkiye and utilized them for its activities, but a majority of these terrorists were arrested, sources added, including Mansur Sain, linked to the PKK’s intelligence cells and Beriven Ünver, the so-called spokesperson for the Makhmour camps’ health committee.
The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, Britain 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.
Security sources have found terrorists are still active in Makhmour camp both in civilian form and caves across Karachok Mountain, which sits between Sinjar in northern Iraq and northeastern Syria near the Turkish border.
For years, the Kurdish-majority region has been coveted by the PKK, which invaded it in 2014 and refused to withdraw despite warnings from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Terrorist groups like the PKK and Daesh are active in a large chunk of Iraq’s northern region, along the country’s border with Türkiye. Ankara maintains dozens of military bases there, and it regularly launches operations against the PKK, which maintains a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in the Irbil province, although the area is under de jure control of the KRG.
The group’s occupation of Sinjar, Makhmour, Qandil and Sulaymaniyah continues to threaten local residents and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq, but neither the Baghdad government nor the KRG recognize the PKK as a terrorist group.
Turkish officials often urge both administrations to take joint action against the terrorists and express readiness to collaborate with Baghdad against both the PKK and Daesh.
The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) regularly conduct cross-border operations in these regions, particularly in northern Iraq, where the PKK terrorists have hideouts and bases from which they carry out attacks against Türkiye.
In the last few years, the operations intensifying in northern Iraq have demolished terrorist lairs in Metina, Avashin-Basyan, Zap and Gara. After eradicating the group’s influence in these regions, Türkiye also aims to clear Qandil, Sinjar and Makhmour.
Its military involvement in northern Iraq dates back over two decades, separately from its operations against the PKK, including the war against the Daesh terrorist group, which controlled much of the area, in 2014 and 2015, when Ankara was an ally in the U.S.-led anti-Daesh campaign.
The terrorist group has been more active in Syria after a civil war broke out more than a decade ago. YPG terrorists control areas near the Syrian-Iraqi border, and unconfirmed reports say they travel between the two countries secretly.
Türkiye also battles the YPG, the PKK’s Syrian offshoot, in northern Syria.
Turkish strikes targeting PKK/YPG hideouts in both Syria and Iraq have intensified since a terrorist attack by the PKK in the capital, Ankara, on Oct. 1 when one terrorist blew himself up in front of the headquarters of the Turkish National Police.