Emre Şahin, a member of the terrorist PKK group, also known by his codename "Rodi," was "neutralized" in Northern Iraq by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), security sources said on Monday.
Şahin was a so-called "communications official" for the terrorist group. "Neutralized" is a term used by Turkish officials to describe a terrorist target either killed or captured alive.
MIT’s operation took place in Gara, a mountainous region in Iraq’s north run by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The terrorist group has hideouts in the region, particularly in the Qandil mountains where its senior cadres are based.
Security sources say Emre Şahin was behind the development of encrypted programs the terrorist group used for communication and was on MIT's primary "target list." Intelligence officers lured Şahin to an area where they damaged the PKK's "communications infrastructure" and neutralized him and his bodyguard, sources told Turkish media outlets.
Şahin joined the terrorist group's "rural" groups or those on the run in 2014 and before that, he was a member of several associations in Türkiye's central province of Eskişehir suspected of having ties to the PKK. He was active in the southeastern Turkish province of Şırnak, and was responsible for PKK-related violence against security forces, before traveling to Iraq in 2019. Before his appointment as the PKK's "communications officer," he was responsible for the production of explosives used in PKK's terror attacks.
The Turkish intelligence agency has stepped up its operations abroad in recent years to stamp out terrorist activities in Iraq and Syria, Türkiye’s two southeastern neighbors. Dozens were "neutralized" in the past two years in precision operations by MIT in both countries where the current conflicts, geography, as well as U.S. support in Syria, shelter them from cross-border operations. Still, Türkiye occasionally launches such operations, via assistance from opposition groups in Syria and through unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Iraq.