A top PKK member leading the terrorist group’s youth branch was killed in a drone strike by Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT), security officials said Thursday.
Sebahat Ormanlı, code-named Mizgin Guyi, was eliminated in a pinpoint operation in northern Iraq as she was preparing for an arson attack in Türkiye's metropolitan.
Ormanlı was one of the 18 members of the PKK’s women youths group, which she was instructing to start wildfires and commit arson across Türkiye, security sources said.
Ormanlı started in 2011 as a spokesperson in PKK’s youth formation in the Silopi town of Türkiye’s eastern Şırnak province.
The following year, she joined the terrorist group’s rural ranks and moved to northern Iraq where she led the PKK’s so-called prison investigation commissions.
For a while, she moved to Syria to take charge as the chief of PKK’s so-called women youths group.
From 2022 onward, she served in the same position in northern Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah region.
She had been wanted as a green-category terrorist by Türkiye.
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.
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 operates 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).
Both MIT and 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.
