Turkish forces eliminate PKK’s so-called brigade chief in Syria

The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) on Friday eliminated a member of the PKK terrorist organization who served as a so-called brigade chief in Syria.

Nejdet Dağlarer, code-named “Geli Serhat,” was added to MIT’s target list due to his activities for the PKK in Türkiye and actions against the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in Syria, according to security sources. The terrorist joined the rural cadres of the terrorist organization PKK in 2009, and continued his armed activities in the Şemzinan region of Hakkari in 2012, on the Iranian border.

After carrying out terrorist activities in Türkiye, he moved to Iraq and then to Syria in 2016 where he served in the Aleppo region for a long time. While in Syria, he played an active role as a guide for the terrorist group in the areas where the TSK was conducting its Olive Branch and Peace Spring counterterrorism operations.

Dağlarer was also in charge in 2020 of overseeing the PKK’s tunnel network in Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani. The terrorist was in charge of the “Çavreş” brigade, which is made up of the PKK’s rural cadres, at the time he was eliminated by Turkish forces.

Security sources said that by eliminating the Çavreş brigade chief, one of the largest terrorist units in Syria, the PKK’s structure in Syria has been seriously damaged.

With the military operations organized by MIT over the past few weeks, a number of terrorists have been eliminated in Qamishli, including Muhsin Yağan, code-named “Dijvar-Silopi,” a so-called administrator of the PKK, and Yusif Mehmud Rebani, code-named “Rezan Cavit,” a “provincial head” of the terrorist group.

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).