Security sources said Thursday that Yunus Demir, also known as "Şivan Gever," was eliminated in Iraq’s Gare region. Demir was a senior member of the PKK terrorist group and was on the wanted list of the Turkish Interior Ministry and Interpol.

The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) had been seeking to locate him after Demir was tasked by the PKK leadership to carry out attacks against the Turkish military in Iraq. Gare is among the regions in Iraq where the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) are deployed for Operation Claw-Lock, a counterterrorism campaign to wipe out PKK leadership holed up there and stop PKK terrorists from infiltrating into Türkiye.

Demir was a member of the so-called "Military Council" of the PKK and was also in charge of training PKK units. Security sources said MIT’s field agents recently pinpointed his location and carried out the operation that also eliminated an unspecified number of terrorists accompanying Demir.

The terrorist joined the PKK in 1995 and has been active in Türkiye and Iraq’s north. He masterminded several attacks targeting Turkish military outposts. Between 2015 and 2017, he was in Syria, working for the PKK’s Syria wing YPG there, and between 2017 and 2019, he was in charge of PKK cells in Iraq’s Sinjar.