An operation by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) eliminated Abdulmutalip Doğruci, a member of the PKK terrorist group in Iraq, security sources said Tuesday.
Doğruci is the first high-profile name of the terrorist group to be eliminated by MIT in 2024. Also known under the code name "Cesur Vedat," he was in charge of drug smuggling for the group. Drug trafficking is a major source of income for the PKK.
Security sources said Doğruci was eliminated in a rural area of Sulaymaniyah of northern Iraq, a hotbed of terrorists where several top names of PKK were eliminated in the past by MIT.
PKK’s senior cadres are hiding out in mountainous parts of Iraq and derive financial resources from drug smuggling through the Iranian border and the countryside of Sulaymaniyah. The PKK maintains a network of smugglers in the area.
Security sources say Doğruci was in charge of the PKK’s illicit drug trade in Türkiye in the past before Turkish intelligence found out that he relocated to Sulaymaniyah to run the trade there. He was involved in laundering money the PKK earned from this illicit trade and purchased equipment for the terrorist group, from computers and camera systems to satellite phones.
Doğruci was the subject of a drug-related investigation in Istanbul in the past and was involved in the youth wing of the PKK. In 2017, he fled to Iraq and joined the terrorist group, according to security sources.
The terrorist group is able to finance its bloody campaign, which has caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people, through drug trafficking in the European Union, according to several reports from Turkish and international law enforcement agencies. The group is involved in all aspects of the illicit narcotics trade in the bloc, including production, distribution to other nations and street dealing. By leveraging Türkiye’s southeastern border near the Middle East and drug trafficking routes in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Africa, the PKK has been active in drug transportation and is connected to regional drug networks.
To distribute the drugs it brought onto the streets, the terrorists rely on their supporters and pro-PKK political groups throughout Europe, reports found. In recent years, Türkiye has stepped up efforts to cut off drug supplies to the group. At the same time, Turkish security forces regularly conduct counterterrorism operations in northern Iraq.
In related news, the Ministry of National Defense announced on Tuesday that four terrorists from the PKK's Syrian branch YPG were "neutralized" in Syria, using a term for terrorists captured dead or alive. The ministry said the terrorists were involved in harassment fire targeting the Operation Euphrates Shield zone in Syria's north. Türkiye launched Operation Euphrates Shield on Aug. 24, 2016, to eliminate terrorists in northern Syria, especially the terrorist organization Daesh, which threatened its security, and to ensure border security within the scope of its right of self-defense stemming from Article 51 of the United Nations Convention. With the operation, the settlements located between the towns of Jarablus and al-Bab and spread over an area of 2,055 square kilometers (794 square miles) were cleared of terrorism in 217 days.