Turkey neutralizes most-wanted PKK terrorist in N.Iraq

ANKARA

Turkish security forces recently neutralized a most-wanted PKK terrorist in northern Iraq, security sources said on Monday.

Ayfer Kordu -- a most wanted terrorists who was listed in the government's red category -- was neutralized in the Qandil region last month.

The wanted list is divided into five color-coded categories, with red as the most wanted, followed by blue, green, orange and gray.

Kordu was neutralized in a joint "pinpoint operation" by Turkish jets and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) on Sept. 13, according to sources who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Codenamed Bese Erzincan, Kordu was the top decision-maker in the KJK, the PKK’s female terrorist branch, and reportedly joined the terrorist group in the 1980s.

According to intelligence sources, she was trained by Abdullah Ocalan, the so-called leader of the PKK.

She was in charge of managing, training and assigning female terrorists.

Turkish authorities often use the word "neutralized" in their statements to imply that the terrorists in question either surrendered or were killed or captured. PKK terrorists often use northern Iraq as a base to plan cross-border terror attacks in Turkey.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

*Writing by Fahri Aksut