The Turkish Intelligence Agency (MİT) on Friday announced that a man accused of orchestrating a deadly explosion in Istanbul in November 2022 had been killed in northern Syria.
The agency said that Halil Menci had been ‘neutralised’ during a targeted operation in the Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syrian town of Qamishli on Wednesday.
According to the agency, Menci was a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria. Ankara claims both military groups are affiliated.
The agency added that Menci had guided two suspects of the bombing attack in Istanbul and had helped one to escape from Turkey afterwards.
The videos shared by the Turkish media show that Menci was the person who died when a white car exploded in the eastern countryside of Qamishli on 22 February.
Mazloum Abdi, the Syrian Democratic Forces’ (SDF) commander in chief, said on Twitter after the explosion that the Turkish drone attack had caused the death of a civilian and wounded a member of the internal security forces of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
“Without regard to the human tragedy that Turkey and Syria are witnessing as a result of the devastating earthquake, which caused the loss of tens of thousands of lives, the Turkish regime continues its aggressive actions against the Kurdish people, using flimsy pretexts” Abdi said.
“While all international efforts are directed towards sending humanitarian aid to the affected areas in Syria and Turkey, Turkish drones targeted, on Wednesday, a civilian car in Qamishli, causing the death of a civilian and wounding a member of the Internal Security Forces,” he added.
Since November, the SDF have numerous times denied any involvement in the deadly blast in Istanbul, which left six people, including a father and his three-year-old daughter, dead and 81 others injured.
Right after the incident, the Turkish authorities accused the Kurdish forces in Syria of orchestrating the attack and the Turkish military started shelling Kurdish-controlled territories in northern Syria.
Before the 6 February twin earthquakes that rocked 10 provinces in Turkey’s south as well as mainly rebel-controlled territories in northern Syria, the Turkish government seemed adamant to launch another ground operation into Syria.
However, the backgrounds and the testimonies of suspects arrested in Turkey in relation to the deadly Istanbul attack raised suspicions in Turkey’s public about the real perpetrators of the incident.
One of the suspects, Ahlam Albashir, who, according to MİT took orders from Menci, said in his police statement that his brother had died while fighting in the ranks of the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA).
“I never supported the PKK. My brother was martyred in the FSA. I have nothing to do with this case. I do not accept the accusations,” she said.
