İsmail Özden (1952 Şimzê, Beşiri – 15 August 2018), aka Mam Zêki Shingali, was a member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (Kurdish: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê, PKK), famous for the leading role he played in the resistance to the conquest of Sinjar by ISIL.

In 1981 he became the founding president of the Kurdistan Patriotic Workers Association (Komeleya Karkerên Welatparêzên Kurdistanê) in Celle.

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.

[6] A Turkish intelligence unit reported that Özden had arrived in Kocho village at around 12:00 hours local time on 15 August 2018.

He was to attend a memorial service for the victims of the Sinjar massacre, which was perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on the resident Yazidis in early August 2014.

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.

[6] The airstrikes were carried out as part of a series of Turkish cross-border military operations with the alleged permission of the Iraqi government.