The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) neutralised a senior YPG/PKK terrorist in Qamishli, northern Syria, security sources have said.

Speaking under anonymity due to media restrictions, sources reported that teams from MIT conducted a successful operation against Murat Ates, the PKK/YPG terrorist overseeing logistics and finance in the city of Qamishli.

Murat Ates, codenamed Renas Amed, joined the terrorist group in Europe in 2014. He carried out armed activities in the Qandil, Avashin, and Gara areas of northern Iraq in 2014-2016.

The terrorist took part in attempts to infiltrate the Turkish Armed Forces and moved to Syria in 2016, said the sources.

Ates, this year, started to operate as the so-called financial officer of military hospitals in the Jazira region and was among the terrorists who managed the illegal money traffic.

Türkiye's fight against PKK

Türkiye neutralised 60 terrorists over the last week, including those hiding across the border in northern Iraq and Syria, the National Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

A total of 458 terrorists have been “neutralised’’ in operations against all terrorist organisations, particularly the PKK/PYD-YPG, Daesh, and FETO, with 184 in northern Iraq and 274 in northern Syria since January 1, 2024, ministry spokesperson Zeki Akturk told the media at a briefing in the capital Ankara.

He said 824 terrorists have been “neutralised’’ in Operation Claw-Lock so far, that was launched in April 2022 to target the PKK terror organisation's hideouts in Iraq's northern Metina, Zap, and Avasin-Basyan regions near the Turkish border.

Ankara's “anti-terror operations in the region will continue with determination,” he added.

Turkish authorities use the term “neutralise’’ to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organisation by Türkiye, the US, and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is PKK’s Syrian offshoot.

In 2013, Türkiye became one of the first countries to declare Daesh a terrorist organisation.

FETO and its US-based ringleader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, in which 252 people were killed and 2,734 wounded in Türkiye.