Erbil, Iraq – Iranian Kurdish opposition events have been on excessive alert because the United States-Israel strikes on Iran started on February 28. Their bases within the semi-autonomous Kurdish Area of Iraq and inside Iran itself have been thrust onto the entrance traces of the struggle.
The potential of Iranian Kurdish fighters coming into the battle to topple the Iranian authorities has additionally been broadly mentioned. Each US President Donald Trump and Israel have suggested that arming these fighters might tip the steadiness of energy inside Iran, the place Kurds make up about 10 % of the inhabitants.
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A number of leaders of those events have advised Al Jazeera they command navy formations and organisational constructions inside Kurdish areas in Iran, along with headquarters and bases within the Kurdish area of northern Iraq.
Kurdish teams from each side of the border flourished after Iraq’s defeat within the 1990-1991 Gulf Struggle led to the creation of a no-fly zone in northern Iraq and self-rule by the Kurdistan Regional Authorities.
Iranian Kurdish teams, from the left to the nationalists, had been significantly effectively insulated following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
On February 22, 2026, 5 Kurdish teams based mostly in Iraq and western Iran fashioned the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan in response to the suppression of the protests. For the reason that struggle started, their navy and political property in Iraq have been closely attacked by Iranian drones and missiles.
Kako Alyar, a member of the political bureau of the Komala Occasion of Iranian Kurdistan, claimed his celebration had sleeper cells and networks that participated in antigovernment protests in Iran, which befell in December and January, till being violently crushed by safety forces.
He additionally stated that because the begin of the struggle, 13 fighters linked to his celebration have been killed in Iranian assaults.
“The outbreak of struggle has modified the circumstances throughout the Kurdish areas, particularly after the Iranian authorities tightened safety measures and suppressed the protests,” Alyar defined.
“The celebration has not obtained any navy help from america, nor from European or Arab international locations, regardless of the calls for to get such help.”
US President Donald Trump has flip-flopped on the function of Kurdish teams within the US-Israel navy marketing campaign. However there have additionally been stories of US intelligence working with Kurdish fighters and that areas alongside the Iraq-Iran border have been significantly closely attacked because the begin of the struggle. Some have interpreted this as an indication that Washington is perhaps severe about floor operations inside Iran by Iranian Kurdish teams.
Iranian opposition fighters are sceptical concerning the success of any potential large-scale navy operation in Kurdish areas in Iran, saying it might be a massively dangerous endeavour and would probably result in big casualties for his or her aspect.
“Nowadays, there are dangers, particularly given the heavy deployment of Iranian forces within the Kurdish areas and alongside the border with the Kurdistan area,” Alyar stated.
The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Authorities had requested Iranian Kurdish events to chorus from actions that might hurt native safety and pursuits, given the Iranian response.
Varied Iranian Kurdish teams, reportedly with hundreds of fighters between them, have lengthy opposed Tehran from their bases in northern Iraq and alongside the Iraq-Iran border.
However Iranian opposition leaders are cautious of US intentions relating to Iran, suggesting they haven’t seen any actual intention of regime change.
”They [the US] don’t need to help forces inside Iran with the goal of toppling the regime. The target is to weaken the Iranian affect within the Center East,” Rebaz Sharifi, a frontrunner within the opposition Kurdistan Freedom Occasion of Iran, advised Al Jazeera.
Sharifi rejected claims circulating on social media that his group had obtained weapons or navy help from the US or different international locations.
Nonetheless, the Iranian navy has launched navy operations towards Iranian Kurdish teams in northern Iraq, together with stories on Friday of strikes on bases there.
Iranian state media have acknowledged assaults on “anti-Iran separatist forces” in hard-to-reach areas close to the Iran-Iraq border.
Sharifi estimates his celebration’s bases and positions have been attacked greater than 80 instances because the starting of the struggle.
The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Authorities had put strain on Iranian Kurdish events to restrict their actions earlier than this present struggle, in a bid to guard the autonomous area. Nonetheless, inside hours of the US-Israel assaults on Iran in February, retaliatory assaults on US property in Iraq’s Kurdish area started and dragged the area into the battle. Financial targets, corresponding to oil fields, have additionally been hit in suspected drone and missile assaults.
“We’ve got hundreds of fighters… We might have executed extra inside Iran, however we place the safety and stability of the Kurdistan Area on the prime of our priorities, and we don’t need to hurt the Kurds in Iraq,” Sharifi stated.
Iranian-linked fighter teams in Iraq have additionally been closely attacked in US strikes, together with after assaults on Saudi Arabia blamed on these teams this week.
Troublesome equation
Iraq as an entire got here below a number of assaults from pro-Iran teams and Iran’s highly effective Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The US has additionally carried out assaults towards these Iraqi teams.
Soran Palani, an skilled on Iranian affairs and an Iranian Kurdish citizen, believes that the Iranian Kurdish events face a extremely advanced equation.
“Iraq’s Kurdistan Area has given these events an area for political, organisational, and navy exercise, however on the identical time it has made the area susceptible to the repercussions of any confrontation between them and Tehran,” Palani stated.
“The absence of direct Arab, European, and American help represents one of the distinguished components stopping the Iranian Kurdish events from making a choice to escalate,” he defined, including that Iran, over the previous years, has managed to construct in depth affect in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, along with supporting its allies within the Palestinian territory.
“Arab international locations haven’t in return offered comparable help to the Arab-Iranian opposition, significantly within the Ahwaz area… This actuality makes it tough to anticipate the Iranian Kurdish events to acquire direct Arab help ought to they determine to open a navy entrance inside Iran,” he stated.
The Iraqi authorities stated Iraq should not be a launchpad for assaults towards neighbouring international locations.
Now, one of the vital questions for the Iranian Kurdish events is whether or not the present struggle will flip right into a venture for regime change in Tehran.
For a lot of Kurds inside Iran and overseas, a collapse within the regime might deliver a historic alternative, however, on the identical time, it might result in a significant safety vacuum and turmoil. The following section of this battle could possibly be essential for Iranian Kurds, Iran, the US, Iraq and the broader area.
