Kurdish fighters launch ground operation in Iran; Tehran announces attack on separatists in Iraq’s Kurdistan

As the war between the US and Iran continues, Kurdish armed groups from neighbouring Iraq have reportedly entered the conflict. According to the Israeli news channel, i24, thousands of Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Free Life Party have launched a ground offensive into Iran.

According to an official from the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan, the Iraqi Kurdish group began the ground operation inside Iran on Monday, 2 March.

Kurds join the US-Iran war

The official further told i24 that PJAK fighters have moved into positions around the southern mountains of Mariwan in western Iran, and more have been deployed in the Zagros mountains region in the country’s northwest, along the border with Iraq.

Kurdish officials also told the Associated Press that Kurdish Iranian dissident groups based in northern Iraq were preparing for a potential cross-border military operation in Iran, and the US has asked Iraqi Kurds to support them.

Iran strikes Kurdish group in Iraq

Iran, meanwhile, has denied reports of armed Kurdish fighters crossing into the country from Iraq. Iran also claimed that it has launched an operation targeting “anti-Iran separatist forces” in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq.

Iran’s state-owned Press TV has published several videos, allegedly showing explosions lighting up the night sky during the operation.

While the location of the strikes has not been revealed, a senior leader of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, an exiled Iranian Kurdish group, told AFP that one of their men was killed in the attack in an area close to Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan.

There are also reports that the headquarters of the Kurdistan Toilers Association, an Iranian Kurdish armed group in Iraq, was targeted in the province of Sulaimaniyah.

The IRGC’s public relations office announced that its “missile units successfully targeted and hit bases of the Komala and anti-revolutionary groups with three missiles at 11 AM”.

Who are Kurds?

Kurds are a stateless ethnic group spread across the Kurdistan region in West Asia, comprising Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

In Iraq and Syria, the Kurds enjoy a level of semi-autonomy over their region, while in other countries, there have been separatist movements aimed at the creation of a unified Kurdistan.

Iran has designated Kurdish opposition groups, which have previously fought its security forces in Kurdish-majority areas along the border, as terrorist organisations.

Last month, five Kurdish armed groups announced a political coalition to seek the overthrow of Iran’s Islamic Republic and ultimately to secure Kurdish self-determination.

Why US want Kurds to fight Iran

If the Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish groups were to join the war, it would be the first entry of a significant ground force into the battle. The Kurdish groups have battle experience from the fight against the Islamic State group.

The developments come after US media reported that the CIA was in talks with Iranian Kurdish armed groups to launch a ground invasion in Iran and spread more unrest in the country by instigating public protests.

According to reports, top US leaders, including President Donald Trump himself, have spoken to Iranian Kurdish armed groups.

According to Reuters, the Iranian Kurdish coalition of groups based on the ‌Iran-Iraq border has been training to mount such an attack in hopes of weakening the country’s military.