Iraqi Kurds Deny Role in Iran as Rumors Swirl of Kurdish Ground Invasion
Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) categorically denied on Thursday that its Peshmerga were planning an invasion of Iran alongside the United States, following rumors that some Iranian Kurdish groups were planning ground operations on what remains of the Iranian terrorist state.
President Donald Trump launched “Operation Epic Fury” against critical targets in Iran on Saturday, intended to neutralize the ability of the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism to pose a threat to the United States and Israel. The operation, alongside a simultaneous Israeli military engagement, targeted hundreds of Iranian military sites, including some nuclear facilities, and eliminated some of Iran’s most senior officials, including “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
This week, following reports that dozens of leaders of the Iranian government and the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had been eliminated, reports on establishment media sites, citing anonymous sources, began claiming that Kurdish forces were preparing a ground attack in Iran. The Kurds, an ethnic group native to the heart of the Middle East, are made up of a wide variety of political and military groups, as the region traditionally known as Kurdistan spans Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. The most powerful and organized of these is the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq, which functions largely as an autonomous government; The Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga have proven to be among the most effective forces on the ground during the war against the Islamic State terrorist group.
Syrian Kurdistan, or Rojava, hosts its own ecosystem of autonomous Kurdish civil and military organizations, the latter mainly represented by the People’s Protection Units (YPG/YPJ). In Turkey and Iran, federal governments have traditionally suppressed attempts at political organization by Kurds, which have included both political parties and, in particular, the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The YPG and its broader military coalition in Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as well as the KRG in Iraq have long maintained friendly relations with the United States, particularly in the fight against ISIS.
KRG President Nechirvan Barzani issued a statement on Thursday denying that his forces or political leaders would become involved in the ongoing Iranian conflict.
“We reaffirm that the Kurdistan Region will always serve as a cornerstone of peace and will not engage in any conflict or military escalation that would endanger the lives and security of our people,” he said, according to Kurdish media outlet Rudaw.
Another official in the region, Hemin Hawrami of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), also said: “We are not part of this war and our goal is to preserve, maintain peace and security in our region and beyond,” directly responding to suggestions that Iraqi Kurds would work to arm and support any Iranian Kurdish military activity against the regime.
Elsewhere in Iraq, a Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) official, Khalil Nadiri, reportedly said they had moved some of their forces near the Iranian border on Wednesday, but said they had not crossed the Iranian border and had not yet planned to do so. The PAK had categorically denied any entry into Iran on Tuesday.
In Iran, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) told Rudaw on Tuesday: “None of our forces have entered the territory of Eastern Kurdistan. [Rojhelat]”, asserting that “such media reports aim to create divisions within the coalition of Eastern Kurdistan forces and are not true.” Rudaw reported that another Iranian Kurdish political party, Komala, also rejected the reports, but added: “we are waiting for all possibilities.”
The PDKI has become rhetorically involved in the ongoing operation against the Iranian terrorist state. The group’s leader, Mustafa Hijri, published a message on Wednesday calling on Iranian soldiers to abandon the regime.
“I call on all conscious and freedom-seeking soldiers and personnel across Iran, and especially in Kurdistan, to abandon the barracks and military centers of the IRGC, the army and other military forces of the regime,” Hijri shared, “to refuse the tasks assigned to them and return to the arms of their families.”
Komala, another Kurdish political organization in Iran, did say it had forces “waiting for suitable terrain” to enter Iran, but reports released Thursday did not indicate that they had already crossed the Iranian border. Komala’s comments followed a major development in Iranian Kurdistan: the unification of several major Kurdish parties, including Komala, into a single major organization called the Alliance of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan.
A wave of anonymous reports emerged Tuesday and Wednesday claiming that the Trump administration had contacted Iranian Kurdish groups asking them to attack Iran’s Islamist regime, all citing “people familiar” and other similar sources. The reports also claimed that the CIA was involved in recruiting and arming Kurdish soldiers to fight Iran. The White House has not confirmed any such reports, but White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday, “President Trump has been in contact with many allies and partners in the region over the past several days.”
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