Kurdish militants have handed over to Ankara two senior Turkish intelligence operatives they kidnapped in 2017 in Iraqi Kurdistan, rebel sources have confirmed to Al-Monitor.

The pair, identified as Aydin Gunel and Erhan Pekcetin, were accused by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) of running a network of spies in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region to monitor the PKK’s activities there. They were allegedly planning to assassinate key PKK commanders who are based in the mountain range separating Iraq from Iran, including Cemil Bayik, who is effectively their leader.

The operatives were said to have been captured by the rebels on Aug. 3, 2017, in the Dukhan area of Sulaimaniyah province, which is under the control of the PKK-friendly Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Turkey’s relations with the PUK have remained sour ever since. Turkey expelled the PUK representative in Ankara in response, and Turkey’s airspace remains closed to flights taking off from and landing at Sulaimaniyah's international airport.

The handover took place “recently” in Sulaimaniyah, according to the sources. They confirmed that one of the agents, Gunel, had died “of illness” while in captivity, and that his remains were transferred to Turkish officials — as first reported by the pro-government daily Hurriyet on Monday.