Security sources said on Saturday a terrorist in charge of the PKK's "women's units" was eliminated by the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in Iraq.
Mürvet Gülsever, codenamed "Jiyan Herdem" was eliminated in an operation in the city of Sulaymaniyah. Gülsever, who joined the rural ranks of the terrorist group in 1992 and had close relations with PKK ringleaders, was included on the MIT target list. Sources said she was also behind executions of terrorists seeking to flee the group and surrender to Turkish authorities and those accused of "espionage." Her last known location was Penjwen near the Iraqi-Iranian border.
Before crossing into Iraq, Gülsever was among the PKK groups active in Türkiye's southeast, including her hometown Mardin, and rural parts of Şırnak and Siirt provinces. She spent some time with now jailed leader of PKK Abdullah Öcalan while the latter was in Syria and underwent ideological and armed training. She later joined the terrorist group's senior women's branch known as PAJK.
The PKK, which has massacred over 40,000 people in Türkiye in a four-decadelong terror campaign, is not designated a terrorist organization in Iraq but is banned from launching operations against Türkiye from Iraqi territory. 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 uses a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil. The PKK also occupies Sinjar, Makhmour and has a foothold in Sulaymaniyah, which sits in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous north controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), where the central Iraqi government has little influence.
Türkiye often criticizes the PKK’s gaining footing in Sulaymaniyah and warns that “further measures” would be taken if the city’s administration continues to tolerate terrorists. Türkiye's cross-border operations into northern Iraq have been a source of tension with its southeastern neighbor for years. Ankara wants Baghdad’s cooperation in eliminating the terrorist group “at its roots” and preventing the formation of a terror corridor along its borders. As a result, Baghdad labeled the group a banned organization in March and set up two military bases in the Zakho region in April.
