Turkish security forces eliminated a PKK/KCK terrorist, who was designing and building drones for the terrorist group, during a cross-border operation in northern Iraq’s Gara region

The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) on Tuesday said it eliminated a top member of the PKK/KCK terrorist group in northern Iraq’s Gara region in a cross-border intelligence operation.

Tekin Okan, code-named "Deniz Bahri," served as the so-called chief of the terrorist group’s special air forces unit and was working to develop aircraft to be used against Türkiye, the agency said.

After joining the PKK/KCK’s rural cadres in 2010, the terrorist moved into northern Iraq where he began designing and manufacturing drones.

He oversaw a drone attack on a city center in Şırnak province in 2018, and two others on Diyarbakır and Batman Airport in early 2021.

The MIT had reportedly been closely monitoring Okan in recent years since he launched the said attacks against Turkish security forces from Syria and Iraq. Field agents placed him under close surveillance once his route between Iraq and Syria was mapped out for his drone production. In line with the up-to-date information, the MIT launched the operation in Gara, the agency said.

In the past week, Turkish intelligence has eliminated several so-called high-ranking members of the PKK, including a training officer and another wanted fugitive, in the same region.

The Turkish intelligence agency has stepped up its operations abroad in recent years to stamp out terrorist activities in Iraq and Syria, Türkiye’s two southeastern neighbors.

In 2022 alone, 23 senior figures of the terrorist group backed by the United States in Syria were eliminated in MIT’s operations in the two countries, while many PKK members were taken into custody and brought to Türkiye.

Since 2018, Turkish intelligence forces have eliminated over 100 terrorists. In February, a PKK member, behind a terrorist attack on Istanbul’s Istiklal Street last year, was killed in another MIT operation in Syria.

The PKK is responsible for over 40,000 civilian and security personnel deaths in Türkiye spanning an almost four-decade campaign of terrorism, and Türkiye has been conducting military operations in northern Iraq since 2019, with both ground and air forces, to battle the organization.

In the last few years, the intensifying operations in northern Iraq have demolished terrorist lairs in Metina, Avasin-Basyan, Zap and Gara. After eradicating the group's influence in these regions, Türkiye also aims to clear Qandil, Sinjar and Makhmour regions.

Turkish military involvement in northern Iraq dates back over two decades, separately from its operations against the PKK, and operations 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.