Turkey announced on Monday the killing of two senior leaders of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the largest component of the Washington-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Two “terrorist” leaders of the YPG were eliminated in an air raid targeting their location in the al-Hasakah governorate, northeastern Syria, Turkish intelligence sources told Anadolu Agency.
The Turkish intelligence service was able to “neutralize” YPG leader Muhammad Aydin in the city of al-Darbasiyah in al-Hasakah, reported Anadolu.
Sources pointed out that Aydin joined the ranks of the Kurdish units in 2005 after coming from Iran. He operated in the countryside of Tunceli province in eastern Turkey and in the southern Hatay province between 2010 and 2013.
In 2013, he became a “regiment official” in Ain al-Arab (Kobani) in the Syrian countryside of Aleppo, and in 2015 a “front official” in Afrin in the countryside of Aleppo.
He later assumed responsibility for the Amuda and Darbasiyah regions.
Sources stated that Aydin had previously participated in the process of detaining and threatening to kill villagers in the Dortyol district in Hatay in 2013.
Local sources in northeastern Syria revealed that the operation that targeted Aydin also killed Sarfaraz Nidal, also known as “Yildiz.”
Yildiz was a member of the Kurdish Organization of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party. The organization is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Yildiz joined the group in 1991 and was arrested by Turkish intelligence in 2012 and released in 2017.
Sources said the SDF had buried Aydin and Yildiz in the village of Al-Daoudia in the countryside of al-Hasakah.
Separately, an operation led by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization led to the arrest of two ISIS terrorists in Syria, security sources said on Monday.
The terrorists, identified as Orhan Moran and Mustafa Kilicli, have been brought to Turkey, said the sources, who requested anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
They were handed over to gendarmerie forces in Turkey’s southeastern border province of Hatay, the sources said.
