Ismail Özden was born in 1952 to a Yazidi Kurdish parents in a village in the Beşiri District. He attended primary school in the village but dropped out of secondary school. In 1969, at age 17, he went to live in Germany at the invitation of his brothers. He settled in Celle, where the Yazidi community was already present. In 1978, he met sympathizers of the PKK and began to get involved in propaganda work for the party. In 1981 he became the founding president of the Kurdistan Patriotic Workers Association in Celle. Also in 1981, he began to be involved in publishing the Sêrxwebun'', a publication of the PKK. In 1985 he travelled to the PKK training camps and met Abdullah Öcalan, the PKK's leader. By 1987 he was a ranking member of the PKK. Due to his prior experience with the Kurdish movement in Europe, Özden was sent back to Germany by the PKK. Between 1992 and 1996, he carried out illegal activities in Germany. In 1996, he was arrested in Germany for his membership in the PKK. He was released from jail in 1998. After the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, Özden returned to the Qandil Mountains in northeastern Iraq and became a member of the executive council of the Kurdistan Communities Union, a Kurdish political organization incorporating also the PKK. He was appointed leader responsible for the so-called Sinjar Province, also known as Shingal, part of Sinjar District in the Nineveh Governorate, northwestern Iraq. Özden was sent to replace the former leaders of the province, Turkish Vahiyettin Karay, alias Agit Civyan, and Iraqi Agit Kelar, who were both killed along with 33 others during a meeting in the Qandil Mountains, by a Turkish cross-border airstrike. The PKK moved into the region after the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant had left and the Iraqi government failed to take control in northern Iraq. The militant Kurdish organization established bases in the mountainous area of Sinjar, where an armed force of about 2,500 were stationed. Özden moved to Sinjar on 11 July 2011.
Assassination
On 15 August 2018, the Turkish Armed Forces, in cooperation with the National Intelligence Organization of Turkey carried out a cross-border airstrike into Iraqi territory. The operation was named "Bedirhan Mustafa Karakaya" after a ten-month-old baby boy, who was killed along with his mother by an improvised explosive device of the PKK in their private car. The boy and his mother had been returning from their visit to the boy's father, who was serving as a gendarmerie sergeant stationed at Yüksekova, Hakkari, southeastern Turkey on 31 July 2018. The MİT was able to listen to Özden's satellite phone and was thus able to localize his whereabouts. His activity was observed for three days. A Turkish intelligence unit reported that Özden had arrived in Kocho village at around 12:00 hours local time on 15 August 2018 for a ceremony in commemoration of the victims of the Sinjar massacre, which was perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on the resident Yazidis in early August 2014. He remained in the area for about three and half hours. The airstrike did not begin during this time due to Özden's proximity to a large number of civilians. He left the meeting place at around 15:30 in an armored vehicle in a convoy of four cars, which was observed by air and land for approximately 20 minutes. The airstrikes were carried out as part of a series of Turkish cross-border military operations with the permission of the Iraqi government. The airstrike begun at around 16:00 hours, as the convoy reached an uninhabited area. An F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter aircraft of the Turkish Air Force fired a laser-guided bomb towards the armored car. However, the first bomb failed to hit Özden's vehicle, and the convoy began to escape. A second missile from the fighter aircraft successfully hit the vehicle, killing Özden's driver and guards and wounding him. The commander of Sinjar Resistance Units, code-named "Mazlum Şingal", who rode in another car, was also severely wounded. Other body guards in the convoy carried the wounded Özden to the last car in the convoy, which tried to escape at around. A Bayraktar TB2unmanned combat aerial vehicle of the Turkish Land Forces carried out a drone strike, which completely destroyed the car carrying Özden. All passengers and Özden were killed immediately. It was reported that the operation killed eleven people, including Özden. The entire operation lasted two hours and 24 minutes after the MİT's initial surveillance. According to a spokesman of the Multi-National Force in Iraq, "Turkey alerted the Coalition of their intentions to strike in the Sinjar area, but did not give any further targeting information". Iraq condemned the airstrikes, alleging Turkey disrespected Iraq's sovereignty. Özden became the first person to be wanted on the Turkish government's red list. The monetary reward for him amounted to 4 million. Ismail Özden is viewed by many Yazidi as a hero of the resistance of the Yazidi against ISIS. A ceremony was held to mourn his death in Celle.
