ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior commander of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was killed in June by Turkish forces in the Kurdistan Region, the armed wing of the group confirmed on Friday. Turkey had declared his killing weeks after targeting him. Ali Dincer, also known as Orhan Cihat Bingol, was from the province of Bingol (Cewlik) in southeast Turkey. He joined the PKK in 1992 at the age of 32. At the time of his death, he was a member of the Executive Council of the People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the military wing of the PKK. He was killed by Turkey in an attack in the Kurdistan Region’s mountains on June 6, the HPG said in a statement on Friday. A June 26 report by Turkish state media said Dincer was killed by Turkey’s intelligence agency (MIT) in Qamishli, northeast Syria (Rojava). Anadolu Agency claimed that the commander was responsible for a 2007 attack that killed 12 soldiers and injured 16 others and another attack on the Turkish army the following year. The PKK often delays announcements of the deaths of its fighters. Turkey frequently targets Kurdish forces in Rojava and alleged PKK bases in the Kurdistan Region. On Thursday, one person was killed and two others were injured in a suspected Turkish drone attack in Amuda, Rojava. Ankara has carried out 95 airstrikes in Kurdish-held areas of north and northeast Syria since early this year, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Since mid-June, Ankara has intensified its military activities inside the Kurdistan Region and built new military bases in Duhok, deploying hundreds of troops to the province. A number of villages have been abandoned, as farmers have watched their livelihoods go up in flames sparked by the conflict. A Turkish drone was downed by the Iraqi army in Kirkuk city on Thursday. Ankara said it seeks details of the incident.
