Turkish forces eliminate 12 PKK Members in Syria and Iraq, including senior leader

Shafaq News/ On Sunday, Turkiye's Armed Forces and National Intelligence Organization (MIT) conducted operations that resulted in the elimination of 12 members of the PKK in Syria and Iraq, including a high-ranking figure of the group.

According to Daily Sabah, in Syria's Qamishli, MIT targeted Abdülhamit Kapar, also known by the alias "Tekin Guyi," a senior PKK leader responsible for overseeing various branches of the group's Syrian wing, the YPG.

Sources told Daily Sabah that Kapar, who was the "director" of several branches of the YPG, the PKK's Syria wing, from "logistics, finances, industry, prisons and the Battalion of Foreign Fighters," had been on Turkiye's most-wanted list since orchestrating a deadly attack on a gendarmerie station in Şırnak in 1992, which left 26 Turkish soldiers dead.

Kapar joined the PKK in 1992 and had been active in multiple regions, including Iraq's Makhmour, Haftanin, and Hakurk, before taking on a leadership role in Sinjar in 2014. After rising through the ranks, he moved to Syria in 2018. Kapar previously evaded capture during a 2021 MIT operation.

Meanwhile, Turkiye's Ministry of National Defense reported that 11 other PKK members were killed in northern Iraq during operations in the Asos region and the Claw-Lock Operation zone. The Claw-Lock Operation, launched in April 2022, is part of Turkiye's broader strategy to establish a 40-kilometer-deep security corridor along its borders with Iraq and Syria.

Ankara's cross-border military actions have strained relations with Baghdad, which views these operations as violations of Iraqi sovereignty. Despite this, the two nations recently signed a security pact aimed at countering the PKK in northern Iraq. Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Guler has stated that the Claw-Lock Operation will conclude before winter to disrupt PKK activities between Syria and the Qandil mountains.