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Senior PKK Official Killed in Turkish Operation in Iraq’s Sinjar

The aftermath of the Turkish intelligence operation in Sinjar. (Turkish intelligence)
The aftermath of the Turkish intelligence operation in Sinjar. (Turkish intelligence)
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Senior PKK Official Killed in Turkish Operation in Iraq’s Sinjar

The aftermath of the Turkish intelligence operation in Sinjar. (Turkish intelligence)
The aftermath of the Turkish intelligence operation in Sinjar. (Turkish intelligence)

Turkish intelligence revealed the death of a high-ranking member of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), Masoud Jalal Osman, known as Zagros Chakdar, during a recent operation in the Sinjar region of Nineveh Province, northern Iraq.

The news was reported by the Turkish agency “Anadolu,” citing security sources on Friday.

According to the same sources, Osman was involved in forcibly recruiting young individuals from Syria and was also responsible for issuing directives to execute numerous attacks targeting Turkish forces.

Sources revealed that Osman had relocated from Syria to Iraq in 2018, becoming the PKK head in Sinjar.

He was known for employing force to subjugate the local population.

According to the sources, Osman was eliminated by a Turkish intelligence operation while en route to participate in a meeting in Sinjar.

Back in 2021, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had threatened to carry out a military operation against PKK positions in Sinjar.

However, the operation was never launched due to the tension it caused between Baghdad and Ankara, as well as regional and international opposition to it.

In May, just days after the first round of presidential elections in Türkiye, an attack attributed to Türkiye in Sinjar resulted in the death of three Yazidi militants associated with the PKK.

Observers believed that Erdogan’s victory in a third presidential term, granting him an additional five years in power, could escalate attacks against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) are a major component.

Türkiye views the SDF as an extension of the PKK in northern Syria and fears the expansion of their military influence in northern Iraq. A potential Turkish ground operation in Sinjar to curb their influence has not been ruled out.

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Cyprus Can Help Rid Syria of Chemical Weapons, Search for its Missing, Says Top Diplomat

FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah
FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah
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Cyprus Can Help Rid Syria of Chemical Weapons, Search for its Missing, Says Top Diplomat

FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah
FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah

Cyprus stands ready to help eliminate Syria’s remaining chemical weapons stockpiles and to support a search for people whose fate remains unknown after more than a decade of war, the top Cypriot diplomat said Saturday.

Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said Cyprus’ offer is grounded on its own past experience both with helping rid Syria of chemical weapons 11 years ago and its own ongoing, decades-old search for hundreds of people who disappeared amid fighting between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriots in the 1960s and a 1974 Turkish invasion, The AP reported.

Cyprus in 2013 hosted the support base of a mission jointly run by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to remove and dispose of Syria's chemical weapons.

“As a neighboring country located just 65 miles from Syria, Cyprus has a vested interest in Syria’s future. Developments there will directly impact Cyprus, particularly in terms of potential new migratory flows and the risks of terrorism and extremism,” Kombos told The AP in written replies to questions.

Kombos said there are “profound concerns” among his counterparts across the region over Syria’s future security, especially regarding a possible resurgence of extremist groups like ISIS in a fragmented and polarized society.

“This is particularly critical in light of potential social and demographic engineering disguised as “security” arrangements, which could further destabilize the country,” Kombos said.

The diplomat also pointed to the recent proliferation of narcotics production like the stimulant Captagon that is interconnected with smuggling networks involved in people and arms trafficking.

Kombos said ongoing attacks against Syria’s Kurds must stop immediately, given the role that Kurdish forces have played in combating extremist forces like the ISIS group in the past decade.

Saleh Muslim, a member of the Kurdish Presidential Council, said in an interview that the Kurds primarily seek “equality” enshrined in rights accorded to all in any democracy.

He said a future form of governance could accord autonomy to the Kurds under some kind of federal structure.

“But the important thing is to have democratic rights for all the Syrians and including the Kurdish people,” he said.

Muslim warned that the Kurdish-majority city of Kobani, near Syria’s border with Türkiye, is in “very big danger” of falling into the hands of Turkish-backed forces, and accused Türkiye of trying to occupy it.

Kombos said the international community needs to ensure that the influence Türkiye is trying to exert in Syria is “not going to create an even worse situation than there already is.”

“Whatever the future landscape in Syria, it will have a direct and far-reaching impact on the region, the European Union and the broader international community,” Kombos said.