Iran has launched an operation targeting Iranians and Iraqi Kurdish groups in neighboring Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, as the regional war waged by the United States and Israel enters its sixth day, leaving more than 1,000 people dead across the country.
State television Press TV reported early Thursday that Tehran was attacking “anti-Iranian separatist forces,” referring to Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish groups believed to be based in hard-to-reach mountainous areas near the Iran-Iraq border.
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Iranian missiles hit the city of Sulaimaniyah in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, according to local reports.
“Three missiles targeted the headquarters of Kurdish groups opposed to the revolution in Iraqi Kurdistan,” Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported on Thursday, citing a military statement. The Iranian military announced early Tuesday that it had used “30 drones” against Kurdish positions.
The attack came days after multiple publications reported that US President Donald Trump is actively talking with Iran and Iraqi Kurdish groups and that the US government wants to use them to foment a popular uprising.
Various Iranian Kurdish groups, which share close ties with Iraqi Kurds, have long opposed Iran from strongholds in northern Iraq and along the Iraq-Iranian border. There are reportedly thousands of fighters between these groups.
Here’s what we know so far:
Why would Kurdish groups cooperate with the US?
U.S. officials said the move was aimed at expanding Iran’s military and dislodging the remnants of the military-controlled Iranian government, CNN reported.
There is also speculation that these groups may be supported to take control of northern Iran, perhaps to create a ground buffer for Israeli forces flowing in from Iraq.
Since the start of the war on Saturday, U.S. and Israeli bombing has focused heavily on areas along the Iraq-Iran border, potentially weakening Iran’s defenses and allowing Kurdish rebels to fully infiltrate Iran, according to a report by the Soufan Center, a U.S.-based think tank.
The US has not ruled out sending ground troops, but analysts told Al Jazeera Iran’s rugged territory would make it extremely difficult.
Winthrop Rogers, an associate fellow at Chatham House, a British think tank, told Al Jazeera that if the US were to support these groups against Iran, it would mean the US government was treating them like armed “players on the board.”
What kind of Kurdish groups are there?
Neither the United States nor Kurdish groups had confirmed any agreement by Thursday.
However, it is known that President Trump has met with the leaders of two Iraqi Kurdish groups, Masoud Barzani, leader of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan, and Bafel Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), according to the US publication Axios. Talabani confirmed the call on Wednesday.
Trump also met with Mustafa Hijri, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), on Tuesday, CNN reported, citing Kurdish officials.
Meanwhile, Iranian Kurdish rebels with thousands of fighters along the Iraq-Iran border formed the Coalition of Political Forces of Iran-Kurdistan (CPFIK) a week before the war began.
The group issued a statement at the start of the conflict, hinting at imminent intervention and urging Iranian military personnel to defect. Thousands of fighters had arrived in Iran by Wednesday, according to Israel’s I24 news agency.
Here are the different groups:
Kurdistan Democratic Party: The ruling party of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The party controls the capital Erbil and Duhok. It has historical ties to Iranian Kurdish groups.
However, even though Iranian drones attacked US assets in Erbil, the KRG does not want to be seen as supporting attacks on Iran. On Wednesday, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragushi and informed him that the region “will not take part in any conflict” targeting Tehran.
In 2023, the two countries signed a security agreement under which Iraq commits to disarming Iranian rebels and relocating them to its territory, but many rebels appear to remain based in Iraq, reflecting the government’s limited influence over the rebels.
Rogers said Iraq’s Kurds, who have close ties to both the United States and Iran, are in a “difficult position.”
“They are under tremendous pressure from a wide range of forces, including (pro-Iranian) Iraqi militias. They will try to stay out of the conflict as much as possible, but that is probably not possible.”
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK): The PUK is the official opposition party in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, and plays an important role nationally as Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid is also a member. In a statement Sunday, Rashid appealed for dialogue and an end to the war. On Saturday, Iraq declared three days of mourning after Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei was killed in a U.S. and Israeli attack on Tehran.
Coalition of Iranian Kurdistan Political Forces (CPFIK): Formed on February 22, 2026, this group includes six Iranian Kurdish rebel groups seeking an independent state.
Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) – Based in the Kurdistan Region, this group has approximately 1,200 members and is banned by Iran as a “terrorist” group.
Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) – Also based in Kurdistan, the party has an estimated 1,000 members.
Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) – Closely allied with the Turkish rebel group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), PJAK is banned by the Turkish government as a “terrorist” group. PJAK’s armed wing, the East Kurdistan Units (YRK), is believed to have between 1,000 and 3,000 members, many of whom are women. It is based in the rugged Qandil Mountains near the Iran-Iraq border and in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. It has launched numerous attacks against Iranian forces over the past decade. One militant was reportedly killed in the recent Iranian attack.
Iranian Kurdistan Struggle Organization (Khabbat) – Number of fighters unknown.
Kurdistan Workers’ Komala – Based in the KRG in Iraq, with an unknown number of fighters.
Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KPIK) – Also headquartered in the Kurdistan Region, it had an estimated 1,000 fighters in 2017.
What is the history of U.S. involvement with Kurdish resistance groups in the Middle East?
Kurds are an ethnic minority group spread throughout the Middle East with a common language and culture. They do not have a state of their own and have historically been marginalized primarily in countries such as Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkiye.
For decades, several Kurdish armed groups have sought autonomy in Turkiye, Syria and Iran.
In Iraq, Kurdish nationalist groups cooperated with the United States with some success during the 1991 Gulf War and helped establish the Iraqi Kurdish Autonomous Region. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) also trained and armed its own military, known as peshmerga. In 2005, the semi-autonomous region was officially recognized in Iraq’s constitution.
Since 2017, the US government has also armed and trained the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian Kurdish militia listed by the Turkiye government as a “terrorist” group because of its ties to the banned PKK. The group, which successfully resisted ISIL (ISIS), is now a major component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). It took control of Raqqa and other ISIL strongholds.
But when military conflict began in August last year with the Syrian army under President Ahmed al-Shalah’s government, Washington turned away from the group and instead supported Damascus. In January of this year, the SDF signed an agreement with the Syrian government to integrate into the government forces. In return, the Syrian government recognized the rights of the Kurds.
Meanwhile, in Turkiye, the PKK, based in northern Iraq, has long been a source of tension with the Turkish government, declaring a ceasefire in March 2025 following calls from its imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan to disarm.
How does Kurdish resistance in Iran compare to others?
Rogers said Iran’s Kurds have opposed the Iranian government since before the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, and Iran’s current weakening presents an opportunity for the Kurds to advance their political goals at home.
But the new coalition of multiple diverse groups is unprecedented, and its internal dynamics will be a key determinant of what role Kurdish groups will play in this war, the analyst added.
“While assistance from the United States would be helpful, especially in terms of targeting security force infrastructure with airstrikes, we would be wary of relying too much on the United States, especially from a regime as capricious and chaotic as the Trump administration,” Rogers said, noting that the United States has abandoned the Kurds in Syria.
Unlike the fractured Iranian movement, Iraq’s Kurds have long united to form a decentralized government enshrined in Iraq’s constitution, build a developed economy, and secure substantive relations with a wide range of foreign countries. Kurdish groups would also want to establish it in democratic Iran, he said.
“I think it is unlikely that the Trump administration has made any commitment to support Iranian Kurdish political goals,” Rogers said, adding that the U.S. plan “appears to be completely unthought out.”
