Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has eliminated a PKK terrorist responsible for armed drone attacks in an operation in northern Iraq, security sources said Tuesday.
PKK terrorist Zilan Azak, code-named “Sema Cuya Çevlik,” was eliminated in a precision strike in Iraq’s Hakurk region, sources informed.
The terrorist conducted reconnaissance and gathered intelligence against Türkiye while taking part in armed drone attacks in Iraq.
Azak dropped out of university and joined the PKK in 2015 before receiving armed training in Iraq’s Gara region.
She had a warrant out for her arrest for aiding terrorism, sources said.
Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq.
The group, 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.
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.
Since the start of the year, Ankara has hinted at a final summer offensive against the PKK in both northern Iraq and Syria, where the PKK operates with its local offshoot, the YPG.
Defense Minister Yaşar Güler said that the ongoing Operation Claw-Lock, launched in April 2022, would be completed before the winter to sever the ties between Syria and Qandil.
Türkiye aims to wipe out the PKK from its borders and create an approximately 40-kilometer-deep security corridor along the Iraqi and Syrian borders.
Both MIT and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) have since ramped up strikes on the “terror corridor” in the region, indicating a wider offensive may already be underway.
Ankara also wants Iraq’s cooperation in eradicating the terrorist group at its roots and signed a deal with Baghdad last week to set up joint security centers to combat the PKK in the region.
Baghdad declared the PKK as a banned group but Türkiye expects it to be recognized as a full terrorist group.
