[4][5] He served as the head of the People's Defence Forces (HPG), the PKK's armed wing from June 2004[6] until July 2009, when he was replaced by Sofi Nurettin.

[6] Some Turkish security analysts claimed in 2011 that Erdal is the leader of the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK).

[9] Since 28 October 2015, he has been in the red category of the "Most Wanted Terrorists" list published by the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Turkey.

[4][5] On 12 July, the Yeni Şafak quoted the Turkish MİT intelligence service as the source of this story.

[12][13][14][15] The story was debunked when Erdal gave a radio interview on 13 July[16] and later thoroughly deconstructed as fake by international media.