The İlim group became known as
Hizbullah in 1993, According to Turkish security officials, the Kurdish Hezbollah was financed by and trained in
post-revolutionary Iran, with the
Iranian government allegedly using
Islamic terrorist groups in order to establish Islamic governments throughout the
Middle East. Further groups within the Kurdish Hezbollah were named as
Tevhid, led by Nurettin Şirin and Mehmet Şahin, and
Yeryüzü, led by Burhan Kavuncu. Besides the town of Batman, Hezbollah was strongest in
Cizre district of
Şırnak,
Nusaybin district of
Mardin, and
Silvan district of
Diyarbakır province. For a long time, the village Yolaç was used as their base. In the early 1990s, the organization became a direct threat to the already rising
Kurdish separatist movement. The Hezbollah viewed the "PKK's claim to be the only true spokesman of Kurdish nationalism" as a "threat to its own identity", As an
Islamist organization, the Kurdish Hezbollah began as an oppositional force against the PKK, but have targeted both PKK militants and other people they considered "immoral" (people who drank alcohol, wore mini-skirts, etc.). Between 1992 and 1995 the Kurdish Hezbollah killed around 500 PKK members, for the loss of around 200 of its own. Some of the major
terrorist attacks carried out by the Kurdish Hezbollah allegedly include an April 1999 suicide bombing in Bingöl, and the 2001 assassination of Diyarbakir police chief
Gaffar Okkan and five other police officers. The group also targeted journalists who wrote about its activities, particularly those who wrote about the collaboration between them and the
Turkish government. It was believed that the group gets support from the
Turkish Armed Forces for its conflict against the PKK. Journalists, mainly Kurds, associated with ''
2000'e Doğru and Özgür Gündem were particularly targeted (see''
List of journalists killed in Turkey). == Turkish military support ==