Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has eliminated another high-ranking PKK terrorist in northern Iraq as he was preparing for an attack on the Turkish Armed Forces, security sources said Tuesday.
MIT carried out a pinpoint operation in the city of Sulaymaniyah to neutralize Mehmet Şefa Akman, code-named "Bahoz Zagros," who had been under its surveillance for a long time.
Turkish authorities use the term “neutralize” to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.
Akman was responsible for organizing PKK activity in the northern part of the Iraqi region. He served the PKK’s so-called Self-Defense Unit. He also took part in recruitment and armed ideological training activities for the terrorists.
The terrorist joined the PKK in 2005 and operated in northern Iraq for 18 years.
Türkiye has intensified its airstrikes against the PKK in Iraq and northern Syria, where it’s fighting the YPG, the PKK’s U.S.-backed local offshoot, in retaliation for the deaths of 12 Turkish soldiers in Iraq over the weekend.
On Friday, Turkish officials said PKK terrorists attempted to infiltrate a Turkish base in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region. They said six Turkish soldiers were killed in the ensuing firefight. The following day, six more Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with PKK militants.
In response, Ankara launched strikes on dozens of sites associated with the PKK in Iraq and Syria, where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed Türkiye would pay “whatever the cost” to prevent the emergence of a “terrorist structure.”
The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, the United Kingdom 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 holds 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).
The group’s occupation of Sinjar, Makhmour, Qandil and Sulaymaniyah continues to threaten local residents and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq, but neither the Baghdad government nor the KRG recognize the PKK as a terrorist group.
Turkish officials often urge both administrations to take joint action against the terrorists and express readiness to collaborate with Baghdad against both the PKK and Daesh, another terrorist group.
Both the National Intelligence Organization (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.
Türkiye’s military involvement in northern Iraq dates back over two decades, separately from its operations against the PKK, including the war against the Daesh terrorist group, which controlled much of the area, in 2014 and 2015, when Ankara was an ally in the U.S.-led anti-Daesh campaign.
