Intelligence agency eliminates PKK’s Sulaymaniyah leader in Iraq

A PRECISION operation eliminated Hüsnü Kümek, a senior leader of the PKK terrorist group in northern Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah, a hub of PKK activity. Security sources said yesterday that Kümek, codenamed “Şevger Azad,” was targeted in an operation by the National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

Kümek, who joined the PKK in 1999, was a “media adviser” for Duran Kalkan, one of the ringleaders of the terrorist group, between 2002 and 2003. He was also close to Cemil Bayık, another senior figure of the group.

The terrorist, who also served in PKK’s so-called “intelligence unit,” was recently involved in training new recruits and spreading anti-Turkish propaganda in Iraq. He was already wanted by Türkiye on charges of membership of a terrorist group.

The terrorist group, which had its clout reduced in northern Iraq thanks to constant cross-border counterterrorism operations by Türkiye, finds support in Sulaymaniyah thanks to a local northern Iraqi political party.

Collaboration between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the PKK in semi-autonomous northern Iraq risks spillover of the terrorist group’s violent campaigns to the wider region. The PUK, based in Sulaymaniyah, stands accused of giving more freedom of movement, both in the city and rural parts of Sulaymaniyah, to the PKK. The PKK, not recognized as a terrorist group in Iraq, seeks to legitimize its presence through political parties and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Türkiye’s southeastern neighbor. In rural Sulaymaniyah, it intimidates the local population by setting up “checkpoints” and through extortion and kidnappings.

The terrorist group’s activities hindered efforts for infrastructure improvements in some 800 villages in northern Iraq and disrupted local farmers’ access to their lands, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Further east of Sulaymaniyah, the PKK is also involved in drug trafficking and smuggling of goods on the Iran-Iraq border. In central Sulaymaniyah, the terrorist group is affiliated with several organizations, from Tevgera Azadi, a political association, to the Kurdish Women’s Research Library and Academy.

The PUK issues IDs exclusive to its counterterrorism units to PKK members, helping them to move easily around the city and beyond. The PUK’s assistance to the PKK also helps the latter to build a strategic “bridge” with the YPG, the terrorist group’s Syria wing. The PUK is also behind military training for YPG members who cross into Iraq from northern Syria.

The scope of the PUK-PKK cooperation further became evident with a 2023 helicopter crash. Nine people killed in the collision in Iraq’s Duhok were found to be PKK members. Moreover, PUK leader Bafel Talabani sent his counterterrorism chief to the funerals of terrorists in Syria’s north a week after the crash. Ferhat Abdi Şahin, also known as “Mazloum Kobani,” leader of PKK’s YPG wing, is also a frequent visitor to Sulaymaniyah, just as Talabani himself occasionally travels to PKK strongholds in Syria.

Cemil Bayık and Şahin were invited to a convention of Kurdish political parties in Sulaymaniyah in November 2022. As the United States did in Syria, the PUK seeks international legitimacy for its collaboration with the terrorist group under the guise of a “joint fight against the terrorist group Daesh.” The PKK uses the main airport of Sulaymaniyah for the shipment of weapons and other materials to Syria, with the assistance of the PUK.

In PUK-governed Sulaymaniyah, the PKK ran wild with its campaign of terrorism that involved the arson of offices of political parties opposing its ideology, as well as the arson of public buildings, from libraries and banks to town halls. The “youth wing” of the PKK was also behind the burning of fields in Sulaymaniyah’s rural district of Ranya in August 2023.

A representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), a rival of the PUK, has called for the “prevention” of activities of the PKK following the attack, citing that the PKK’s “youth wing” sought to bring chaos and war to the region. Dilshad Reshid Mella, a senior member of the Gorran Movement, claimed that the PKK established a new unit in August 2023, and the group was also behind the assassination of a Peshmerga commander, as well as the killing of a Turkish diplomat stationed at Türkiye’s Consulate in Irbil in northern Iraq.

Tensions have been rising between Türkiye and the PUK, one of the dominant parties in the KRG since the PKK increased its attacks on Turkish troops.