Turkish spy agency apprehends alleged PKK member in Sulaimani: Report

The report did not elaborate further on the nature of the “operation” or the date of the abduction.

Kurdistan 24 2023/02/28 12:08

The alleged PKK member, Ramazan Gunes, is pictured while in the custody of Turkish security forces, according to state-affiliated media. (Photo: Anadolu Agency)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Turkish National Intelligence Agency known as MIT has apprehended a suspected member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani, a report from Turkey’s state-affiliated media said on Tuesday.

Ramazan Gunes, the alleged member, has been involved in killing 60 members of Turkish security forces inside the country between 2011 and 2017, according to information Anadolu Agency obtained from MIT.

The report did not elaborate further on the nature of the “operation” or the date of the abduction.

The Sulaimani Asayish (internal security) did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter when contacted numerous times by Kurdistan 24.

In September last year, the intelligence agency claimed that it had similarly captured two members of the group inside Makhmour refugee camp in Iraq’s Nineveh province.

The Kurdistan Region’s Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD) on Monday announced that a Turkish unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) killed three militants, including a commander, of a PKK-affiliated group in the Yezidi majority town of Sinjar.

Engaged in decades-old conflict, Turkey regularly targets alleged members and positions of the group inside urban centers in the Kurdistan Region with drone strikes. The Turkey-PKK confrontation has resulted in tens of thousands of casualties from both sides.

Officials from the Kurdistan Region regularly call on the warring sides to take their conflict outside of the populated border towns, as the long-standing confrontation has displaced hundreds of residents in these rural areas and threatened their livelihood.