Turkish forces eliminated a so-called senior member of the PKK terrorist group's Syrian wing YPG in northeastern Syria, security sources said Tuesday.

Muhsin Yağan, who authorities say planned and implemented numerous terrorist acts against security forces on the border, was eliminated in an operation by Türkiye's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in the Qamishli region, according to the sources, requesting anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Code-named "Dijvar Silopi," Yağan was the PKK/YPG's so-called administrator in Qamishli.

He joined the PKK in the 1990s and engaged in terrorist activities in the Şırnak countryside, later operating in Iraq and Iran, as well.

Yağan was sent to Qamishli in 2020 by the order of Murat Karayılan, one of the ringleaders of the PKK, becoming the terrorist group's so-called administrator there.

Meanwhile the PKK/YPG fired mortar shells into Türkiye's southeastern province Gaziantep's Karkamış district. Four mortar shells were fired from the areas occupied by the terrorist organization, east of the Euphrates, and fell on uninhabited areas in Karkamış near the border.

The governor of Gaziantep, Davut Gül, said that there were no dead or wounded, the Turkish army countered the attack and punitive shots were fired in self-defense. After the Turkish army returned fire, smoke could be seen rising from the points where terrorists were located in the west of Ain al-Arab, positioned east of Karkamış.

For more than 40 years, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

Since 2016, Ankara has launched a trio of successful counterterrorism operations across its border in northern Syria and northern Iraq to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018) and Peace Spring (2019).