Turkish intelligence neutralizes so-called PKK/YPG terror group leader in Syria

By Baris Gundogan

ANKARA (AA) – Turkish intelligence on Wednesday neutralized a so-called leader of the PKK/YPG terror group in northeastern Syria, according to security sources, who added that he was wanted by Interpol with a red notice.

Ali Dincer, the so-called leader of Al-Jazira region, was neutralized by Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in an intelligence-based operation in the Qamishli region of Syria, sources said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Terrorist Dincer, codenamed "Orhan Bingol," joined the PKK in 1991 and was involved in subversive and several acts of terrorism.

Dincer, who had been under long-term surveillance by MIT, was directly responsible for the 2007 attack on the Commando Battalion in Daglica village of Yuksekova district in the eastern Turkish province of Hakkari, where 12 soldiers were killed and 16 others were wounded, as well as for the attack carried out at the Aktutun Gendarmerie Station in Semdinli district of Hakkari in 2008.

Dincer started his terrorist activities in the rural area of the eastern Turkish province of Bingol in 1991-1992.

He was the so-called head of the division in the Erzurum-Tunceli countryside between 1992 and 1999 and received training from imprisoned ringleader Abdullah Ocalan in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon during these years.

In its nearly 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and the EU — has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz