Fırat Serihan, a terrorist in charge of the PKK terrorist group’s "arsenal" in northern Iraq, was eliminated in an operation by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), security sources said Wednesday.
Serihan, code-named "Hogir Batman," was in the "gray category" of Türkiye’s most wanted list for terrorists and was active in Iraq’s Gara region, a stronghold of the PKK.
MIT’s investigation found Serihan was behind attacks against Turkish security forces in Syria’s north in 2016. In Iraq, he was a supplier of weapons and munitions for other terrorists seeking to attack Turkish troops in the Claw-Lock operation zone of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in the region. Sources said an unspecified number of terrorists who were accompanying Serihan were also eliminated in MIT’s operation.
Sources said Serihan joined a terrorist group in 2010, traveling from Istanbul. Between 2010 and 2014, he served in the group’s strongholds in northern Iraq before crossing into Syria. Until 2016, he remained in Syria and rose in the ranks of the terrorist group in Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani. In 2018, he returned to Iraq.
In its 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S. and the EU, has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, infants and the elderly.
Strikes on the terrorist group have only intensified in the past two years. The PKK mounted an attack in the capital, Ankara, in October, as two of its members attempted to raid the headquarters of the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), killing five and injuring 22 others.
MIT stepped up its operations against terrorist groups abroad in recent years. Counterterrorism operations largely target the PKK and its affiliates. They concentrate on northern parts of Türkiye's neighbors Syria and Iraq, where the terrorist group exploited a security vacuum to operate freely. Turkish intelligence generally carries out precision airstrikes, employing drones, but occasionally, they bring terrorism suspects alive.