Top PKK official killed in Sulaimani

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – According to the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (aka MIT), an operation in Sulaimani resulted in the death of Husnu Kumek (aka Şevger Azad), the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Kalar.

Meanwhile, the Anadolu Agency announced that Kumek was previously the bodyguard of senior PKK officials Cemil Bayik and Duran Kalkan.

His task was to organize training activities for PKK support circles in Sulaimani and Kalar within PKK intelligence (aka NLP).

Kumek's movements were closely monitored by the MIT agency in Sulaimani province.

He joined the PKK in 1999. Kalkan's media activities were under his control between 2002 and 2003.

This is the second PKK leader to be killed in Sulaimani province by MIT.

Earlier on March 4, MIT stated that they managed to kill Gulsun Silgir (aka Sara Hogir Riha), who was in charge of the PKK and Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) youth organizations, in the Penjwen district of Sulaimani.

According to MIT, Silgir joined the PKK youth organizations in 2011 and in 2021 he was one of the PKK activists in Sulaimani.

Turkey has launched several large-scale ground operations against the PKK in the Kurdistan Region’s mountainous areas since 2021.

Tens of thousands have been killed on both sides in armed conflict since the mid-1980s, including civilians.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by the United States, Turkey, and the EU, among other countries. So far, efforts by sympathizers of the group to delist it have failed.