Bodyguard of PKK ringleader Karayilan neutralised by Turkish forces

Terrorist Yunus Aras, also known by the codename Herekol Hezex who served as the bodyguard for the PKK ringleader Murat Karayilan, has been neutralised by the Turkish forces, the Interior Minister announced.

Releasing a statement on his social media account on Friday, Ali Yerlikaya said Aras was among the two PKK members who were under surveillance in the rural area of Alayurt neighbourhood in Dargecit district of Mardin province by the Mardin Provincial Gendarmerie Command.

"Coordinated by the Intelligence Directorate of the Gendarmerie General Command, the terrorists were neutralised in the Heroes-32 operation on December 4," he said.

In the DNA test of the unidentified member of the PKK who was neutralised, it was determined that the person was Yunus Aras, Yerlikaya added.

It was revealed that the terrorist took part in a total of four attacks, resulting in the deaths of four security personnel and injuries to 15 others, as stated by the minister.

Who is terrorist Murat Karayilan?

Murat Karayilan, also known as Cemal, is one of the co-founders of the PKK terrorist organisation. He features on the Turkish Interior Ministry's "most wanted terrorists" list.

After joining the PKK in 1979, he became the de facto leader of the terror group after its ideological fountainhead, Abdullah Ocalan, was captured by Turkish intelligence agents in 1999. The terrorist organisation's leadership moved to Iraq's mountainous Qandil region shortly afterwards.

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it counted Karayilan among "significant foreign narcotics traffickers" in the same year he took the reigns of the PKK.

Karayilan was assigned as the new commander-in-chief of HPG, the PKK's armed wing, in 2014.

On December 13 2016, the chief prosecutor of Türkiye's Mardin province also issued warrants for the arrest of Karayilan and Duran Kalkan, another PKK commander, following the murder of Derik District Governor Muhammet Fatih Safiturk, 35, in his office with hand-made explosives.

Safiturk had recently been appointed as the district's mayor after the previous mayor was detained, facing charges of having links with the PKK.