Turkey said on Thursday that the Turkish National Intelligence Organisation, MIT, had carried out an operation to assassinate a female leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in an operation in northern Iraq.
Security sources told Anadolu Agency that the MIT agents monitored the movements of Hatice Hazar, nicknamed Pervin Zilan but did not say when the killiing took place.
The Andalou Agency report stated that the MIT squad “returned safely to Turkey.” The PKK, on the other hand, has not yet made a statement.
The attack was reportedly carried out in the city of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq, a few days after the assassination of another prominent Syrian Kurdish leader in the same Iraqi city, near the Iranian border.
Observers believe that Turkey is carrying out unremitting attacks against the Kurds, regardless of where they are and the parties that sponsor or host them. It is seen that Turkey wants to demonstrate its determination to carry out its assaults despite widespread protests, including from the Iranians, Russians and Americans, who oppose Ankara's expanding influence in Kurdish areas.
Since the July 18 Tehran summit with between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Iran's President Ebrahim Raidi, Turkey has increased the pace of its killings in the areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), whose backbone is made up of Kurdish fighters.
Turkey has recently ignored official and popular protests after targeting an Iraqi tourist site, which led to the killing and wounding of dozens of civilians. Meanwhile, an increasingly weak Iraqi government has failed to pressure Ankara to agree to withdraw from Iraqi territory.
Turkish security sources said that Hazar joined the ranks of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), classified as a terrorist movement in Turkey, in 1991 and was responsible for the organisation's female branch in Armenia in 2004.
The PKK is based in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, and is active in many cities, regions and valleys, from which it launches attacks on Turkish sites.
The most recent operation came just days after Turkish intelligence killed the Kurdish leader Farhad Shibli, the deputy of the joint presidency of the Autonomous Administration for North and East Syria.
The Anadolu news agency quoted Turkish security sources on Sunday saying that Shibli, nicknamed "Farhad Drake", was assigned a mission in Iraq by the PKK leadership. The sources added thathe was a close associate of PKK leader Farhad Abdi Shahin.
The Syrian-Kurdish Autonomous Administration accused Turkey of assassinating Shibli by targeting a civilian car in the Iraqi province of Sulaymaniyah with a drone, during a visit by the Kurdish leader for medical treatment.
Ankara's recent operations carry a warning to both Iran and the Kurdish authorities in Sulaymaniyah, observers say, noting that Turkey is ready to target any Kurdish leader at any time and any place.
The anti-terrorist agency in the Kurdistan region of Iraq said last Friday that a Turkish drone also killed four PKK militants and wounded another on Friday in Sulaymaniyah.
The escalation comes following Ankara’s threat, nearly two months back, to launch a military campaign against two areas controlled by Kurdish forces. President Erdogan said a few days ago that his country would continue to fight against terrorist organisations in northern Syria, despite international warnings.
On Thursday, the Kurdish security forces, also known as the Asayish in the Jazira, Euphrates and Afrin Regions, announced the killing of four of their members, including three women, following a Turkish strike.
In a statement, the Kurdish security forces condemned Turkey’s ongoing aggression and said, "A drone targeted our forces" in the town of Ain Issa in Raqqa governorate, which led to the "martyrdom of four people."
In April, Turkey's defence ministry announced that Ankara had launched a major cross-border military offensive against PKK militants in northern Iraq.
The Turkish Foreign Minister Hulusi Akar claimed that the Turkish forces are only targeting "terrorists," and they are taking extra precautions to avoid civilian casualties and damage to cultural heritage.
The office of the Iraqi President Barham Salih said it considered the Turkish offensive a threat to the country's national security, while Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu claimed that Turkey's goal is to protect its borders.
Arab Weekly
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