Sources said on Wednesday that Islam Cehanfer, a senior name in the terrorist group PKK, was “neutralized” in Iraq, using a term to describe terrorists captured dead or alive.
The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) was conducting a surveillance operation on Iranian-born Cehanfer, who is also known under the codename "Berhudan Kelhor." Sources said Cehanfer was eliminated in a rural area of the Penjwen district of Sulaymaniyah, in northern Iraq, some 200 kilometers (124.27 miles) from the Turkish-Iraqi border. It was the same area where Zeynep Eyveri, another prominent PKK member, was eliminated by MIT in late December.
Cehanfer was a so-called “battalion commander” within the PKK and was also active in Syria where he oversaw the treatment of injured terrorist group members.
Both MIT and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) regularly conduct cross-border operations 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.
Sulaymaniyah has been among the locations where PKK terrorists hide out. Last September, the Turkish Foreign Ministry highlighted the city among the training grounds of PKK after Iraq accused Türkiye of an attack on an airport in Sulaymaniyah. The ministry said in a statement that a “drone attack” Baghdad claims was conducted by Türkiye in Sulaymaniyah revealed that members of the PKK terrorist group were training with a group affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) active in the region controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
