Thousands of Kurdish fighters have a launched a ground invasion in Iran, according to a US official.
The Kurdish militias, based across the border in Iraq, began the offensive in northwestern Iran on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump on Sunday night spoke with the heads of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) the two main Kurdish parties in Iraq – to discuss the situation in Iraq.
The CIA was exploring plans to arm the Kurdish forces with the aim of sparking a popular uprising in Iran, CNN reported Tuesday.
The Kurdish groups are widely seen as the most well-organized segment of the fragmented Iranian opposition and are believed to have thousands of trained fighters.
Their entry into the war could pose a significant challenge to the embattled authorities in Tehran and could also risk pulling Iraq further into the conflict.
Khalil Nadiri an official with the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) based in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region said Wednesday that some of their forces had moved to areas near the Iranian border in Sulaymaniyah province and were on standby.
He said Kurdish opposition group leaders had been contacted by US officials regarding a potential operation, without giving more details.
Asked about reports that the Trump administration was considering arming Iranian Kurdish groups, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Wednesday: ‘None of our objectives are premised on the support or the arming of any particular force. So, what other entities may be doing, we’re aware of, but our objectives aren´t centered on that.’
Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq (file photo)
A long-range Precision Strike Missiles (PrSMs) used by the US during ‘Operation Epic Fury’ on Wednesday
An Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache attack helicopter fires rockets while flying at a position along the border between northern Israel and southern Lebanon on March 4
A plume of smoke rises after a strike on Tehran on March 4
US Navy F-35 Lightning II aircraft flying over the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in support of Operation Epic Fury on March 3
Before the US and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday, triggering a new war in the Middle East, the PAK had claimed attacks on the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for Tehran´s violent crackdown on protests.
But an official with the group said it had not sent forces from Iraq into Iran.
The Kurdish groups have battle experience from the fight against the Islamic State group.
Kurds in Iran have a long history of grievances and uprisings against both the current Islamic Republic and the monarchy that preceded it.
During the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Kurds were marginalized and repressed and sometimes rebelled.
After Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the new theocracy also battled Kurdish insurgents. Iranian forces destroyed Kurdish towns and villages in fighting that killed thousands over several months.
While they share a desire to see the current authorities ousted, the Kurdish groups have also butted heads with other opposition groups – notably the faction led by the former shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, who has accused the Kurds of being separatists aiming to carve up Iran.
The potential operation has put leaders of the Iraqi Kurdish region in a delicate position.
Smoke rises from Israeli bombardment on the southern Lebanese village of Khiam on Wednesday
Two F/A-18 Super Hornets launch from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in support of Operation Epic Fury on March 3
When asked about the call and reports that Trump has sought military support for Iranian Kurdish groups, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: ‘He did speak to Kurdish leaders with respect to our base that we have in northern Iraq,’ but denied that Trump had agreed to a specific plan.
The Iraqi Kurdish official said the Iraqi Kurds were concerned that getting directly involved in the conflict would draw a harsh Iranian response. Already the Kurdish region has seen a string of drone and missile attacks by Iran and allied Iraqi militias in recent days, targeting US military bases and the U.S. Consulate in Irbil as well as the Kurdish groups’ bases.
While most of the attacks have been intercepted, civilian homes have been damaged, and the region is suffering from electricity cuts after a key gas field halted operations due to security concerns.
The presence of armed Iranian Kurdish groups in northern Iraq has been a point of friction between the central Iraqi government in Baghdad and Tehran.
Iraq in 2023 reached an agreement with Iran to disarm the groups and move them from their bases near the border areas with Iran – where they potentially posed an armed challenge to Tehran – into camps designated by Baghdad.
Their military bases were shut down and their movement within Iraq restricted, but the groups did not give up their weapons.
Iraq’s National Security Adviser Qassim al-Araji said in a post on X that Ali Bagheri, deputy secretary of Iran´s Supreme National Security Council, had requested in a call between them ‘that Iraq take the necessary measures to prevent any opposition groups from infiltrating the border between the two countries.’
Al-Araji said Iraq is committed to ‘preventing any groups from infiltrating or crossing the Iranian border or carrying out terrorist acts from Iraqi territory’ and noted that security reinforcements had been sent to the border.
In addition to retaliation by Iran, any movement by Iraqi Kurds to join a cross-border attack would likely inflame tensions with Iran-backed Iraqi militias, which have already claimed missile and drone strikes on Irbil in recent days.
