Over the course of February, Türkiye has carried out a string of targeted killings against high-ranking figures in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the party’s Syrian branch the YPG, and their affiliates in areas of north-eastern Syria controlled by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Concurrently, Turkish military strikes against Kurdish military and civilian infrastructure in the area have declined. 

In January, Turkish forces had used military aircraft and drones to carry out more than 50 such strikes, as part of a military air operation specifically targeting oil and gas facilities and other economic infrastructure belonging to the PKK.  

In February however, there were fewer such attacks, as Türkiye appeared to focus more on targeted killings of military and security leaders of the PKK and its affiliates. It also made limited strikes against security and military facilities affiliated with the Kurdish-dominated Autonomous Administration in north-eastern Syria and the latter’s domestic security forces, the Asayish. 

In February, Türkiye carried out six targeted killings, most of them with drones and all concentrated in and around the cities of Qamishli and Al-Malikiyah / Derik. Two of these strikes targeted an Asayish security center in the Al-Mahatta neighborhood and a hospital center linked with the People’s Protection Units (YPG) called the Federation of War Wounded in Northern and Eastern Syria, in the Al-Urbiyya neighborhood. Others hit a YPG car in the Muwadhifeen district, a vehicle near the village of Khan Al-Jabal / Khaneh Sari that belonged to the Syriac Internal Security Forces (Sutoro), a car near an Asayish checkpoint at the entrance to the city of Al-Malikiyah/Derek, and two cars near an iconic archway in Derek. 

These operations killed four Asayish personnel, three Sutoro members and a YPG leader known as Murad H, who was part of a team arranging money transfers within the PKK’s financial networks. They also killed two women who were leaders in the  Women’s Protection Units (YPJ): Surkhin Ruhalat, an Iranian accused of taking part in  an attack that led to the death of 10 Turkish soldiers in Türkiye’s Şırnak province on September 2, and Azadi Derik, who is also accused of procuring rockets and carrying out missile attacks against Turkish forces stationed in northern Aleppo, launched from areas of Tal Rifaat where both Iranian militias and the YPJ / YPG are deployed. 

What is noticeable from these operations is that they were concentrated within the Qamishli and Al-Malikiyah regions, where the PKK has previously been able to move and operate in relative safety. This appears to reflect an increase in Türkiye’s intelligence penetration of SDF and PKK-dominated parts of Syria, suggesting the likelihood of more such assassinations of high-ranking commanders from the PKK and its affiliated organizations in Syria - especially those implicated in operations against Turkish military or civilian interests. 

However, despite the uptick in targeted killings and fewer strikes on military infrastructure, Türkiye does not appear to have fundamentally changed its strategy against the PKK and its affiliates in northeastern Syria. It has started placing more focus on intelligence-based attacks of the nature described above, under the management and supervision of the Turkish intelligence services. However, this however remains within the broader strategy that Ankara has adopted in Syria since late 2023, of stepping up attacks on the PKK’s economic resources and waging a war of attrition against its military and security leadership, while the Turkish armed forces continue to carry out intermittent air strikes.