Turkey says it has netted a high-level Kurdish militant in a covert operation mounted by its national intelligence organization in Iraq’s Yazidi-dominated Sinjar region. Ibrahim Parim of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who went by the codename “Lazer,” was responsible for “logistics,” according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

Sitting on the border of Kurdish-governed northeast Syria, Sinjar serves as a critical link for PKK rebels moving between Iraq and Syria, according to Turkish authorities. Turkey has targeted the area on several occasions, killing what it claims were high-value PKK targets. The Turkish attacks have sowed panic among the civilian population already traumatized by the Islamic State’s genocidal campaign against the Yazidis in 2014.

On Feb. 8, Sinjar Mayor Mahma Khalil called on the Iraqi government to assert full control over the area, saying this would head off a Turkish invasion. He said Sinjar should be demilitarized. “Neither the [PKK] nor Turkey should be allowed to attack,” he said.

PKK sources say the call by Khalil, who was installed as mayor in line with a recent UN-backed security deal signed in October 2020 between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) that is allied with Turkey, is part of a coordinated plan to oust the PKK from Sinjar.