Firyal Silêman Xalid, who was born in Amûdê in 1975 and was called Zelal Zagros within the Kurdish liberation movement, was shot dead in the street outside a school in the city of Kirkuk in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) on 18 January. The gunman and an accomplice appeared on a moped and fired nine shots at the revolutionary, most of which were fatal. After the crime, they were able to escape unrecognised. The Kurdish movement suspects the Turkish intelligence service MIT as the perpetrator of the deadly attack, after which two suspects were arrested by Iraqi security authorities.

Kongra Star Spokesperson Rihan Loqo spoke to Hawar News Agency (ANHA) regarding the murder of Zelal Zagros and the women's struggle.

Rîhan Loqo stated that Zelal Zagros was one of the leading figures of the women's movement and took part in every aspect of the Rojava revolution. “She also played a very important role in the organisation of women in the North-East Syrian regions liberated from ISIS. She was constantly in action with her modest personality and her militant stance of freedom protecting the gains of women.”

Noting that Zelal Zagros continued her 31-year-old struggle in Kirkuk when she was targeted by a fatal attack, Rîhan Loqo continued: "Zelal Zagros was targeted by the Turkish state and KDP's collaborators (agents). The KDP, which cleared the way for the Turkish state in the mountains of Kurdistan, targets women, pioneers of society and female academics every day in these regions. They are clearly afraid of Kurdish women. They do not want Kurdish women to lead the revolution. Those states act with a ruling, nationalist, racist and sexist mentality. By imposing their own system shaped by a patriarchal mentality, they do not allow women to organise. Our friend Nagihan Akarsel had also been targeted in the same way. Women, who face the same mentality everywhere in Kurdistan, are targeted by the occupying Turkish state."

Stating that the women's revolution frustrated the dreams of the occupiers and the ruling powers, Rîhan Loqo said: "We will expand our struggle, we will grow stronger. Through these attacks, they want to break the will and hopes of free women. When you target one of our friends, hundreds of others replace her. We will follow the path of Zelal Zagros. We promise to fulfil the wishes of our martyred friends. We will strengthen women's organisation on the path they paved, and we will protect the gains of the revolution even more."

Stressing that the murderers of Zelal Zagros would be held to account, Rîhan Loqo said, "We started to work on the file. We had previously prepared a file about the targeted attacks against Leyman Şiwêş and Yusra Derwêş, but that file was ignored by the relevant organizations, which remained silent. Women also fall victim to crimes in the occupied territories. No organisation has worked on these files. All this means that they are also complicit in these crimes."