Iran has launched operations targeting Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish groups in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of neighboring Iraq as the regional war launched by the United States and Israel entered its sixth day, with more than 1,000 people killed across the country.
State television Press TV reported early Thursday that Tehran was attacking “anti-Iran separatist forces,” referring to Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish groups believed to have bases in hard-to-reach mountainous areas near the Iran-Iraq border.
Recommended stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
Iranian missiles hit the city of Sulaimaniyah in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, according to local reports.
“We targeted three missiles at the headquarters of Kurdish groups opposed to the revolution in Iraqi Kurdistan,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported Thursday, citing a military statement. The Iranian military said Tuesday that it used “30 drones” on Kurdish positions.
The attack comes just days after multiple publications reported that US President Donald Trump was in active talks with Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish groups, and that Washington hopes to use them to spur a popular uprising.
Several Iranian Kurdish groups, which share close ties with Iraqi Kurds, have long opposed Tehran from their bases in northern Iraq and along the Iraq-Iran border. These groups reportedly have thousands of fighters between them.
Here’s what we know so far:
Why do Kurdish groups cooperate with the United States?
US officials said the goal is to stretch Iranian forces and eliminate the remnants of the military-dominated Iranian government, according to a CNN report.
There is also speculation that the groups could be supported to take control of northern Iran and create a land buffer zone for Israeli forces, possibly arriving from Iraq.
Bombing strikes between the United States and Israel have primarily targeted areas along the Iraq-Iran border since the start of the war on Saturday, possibly to degrade Iranian defenses and allow Kurdish opposition groups to fully cross into Iran, according to a report by the US-based think tank the Soufan Center.
The United States has not ruled out sending ground forces, although analysts told Al Jazeera that Iran’s rugged territory would make this very difficult.
If the United States supports these groups against Tehran, it would mean Washington is treating them as armed “players on a board,” Winthrop Rodgers, an associate fellow at the U.K. think tank Chatham House, told Al Jazeera.
What Kurdish groups are there?
Neither the United States nor the Kurdish groups had confirmed any agreement as of Thursday.
However, Trump is known to have spoken with the leaders of two Kurdish groups in Iraq: Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Bafel Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), according to the American publication Axios. Talabani confirmed the call on Wednesday.
Trump also spoke with Mustafa Hijri, head of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI), on Tuesday, CNN reported, citing a Kurdish official.
Meanwhile, Iranian Kurdish rebel groups, which have thousands of fighters along the Iraq-Iran border, formed the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan (CPFIK) alliance a week before the war broke out.
The group issued statements at the beginning of the conflict, signaling imminent intervention and urging the Iranian military to defect. According to Israel’s I24News, thousands of its fighters were in Iran on Wednesday.
Here are the different groups:
Kurdistan Democratic Party: The ruling party in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The party controls the capital city of Erbil and Duhok. It has historical ties to Iranian Kurdish groups.
However, the KRG is not eager to be seen as supporting attacks against Iran, even as Iranian drones have attacked US assets in Erbil. On Wednesday, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and told him that his region “will not be part of the conflicts” against Tehran.
In 2023, the two countries signed a security agreement in which Iraq promised to disarm and relocate Iranian opposition groups on its territory, although many groups appear to still be based there, reflecting the limited influence the government exerts over them.
The Iraqi Kurds, who have close ties to both the United States and Iran, are in a “difficult position,” Rodgers said.
“They are under tremendous pressure from a wide range of forces, including the (pro-Iran) Iraqi militias. They will try to stay out of the conflict as much as they can, but that will probably prove impossible,” he said.
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK): The PUK is the official opposition in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan and is also relevant at the national level, as Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid is a member. In a statement on Sunday, Rashid urged dialogue and an end to the war. Iraq declared three days of mourning following the assassination of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on Saturday.
Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan (CPFIK): Formed on February 22, 2026, the group includes six Iranian Kurdish opposition groups seeking an independent state.
Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) – Based in the Kurdistan Region, the group has around 1,200 members and is banned as a “terrorist” group by Iran.
Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) – Also based in Kurdistan, it has approximately 1,000 members.
Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) – A close ally of the Turkish armed opposition group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the PJAK is banned as a “terrorist” group by Ankara. The PJAK’s armed wing, the Eastern Kurdistan Units (YRK), is believed to have between 1,000 and 3,000 members, many of them women. It is based in the rugged Qandil Mountains, near the Iran-Iraq border, and in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan. It has launched numerous attacks against Iranian forces in the last decade. A recent Iranian attack reportedly killed one fighter.
Iranian Kurdistan Struggle Organization (Khabat) – Has an unknown number of fighters.
Komala of the Kurdistan Workers – Based in Iraq’s KRG, it has an unknown number of fighters.
Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KPIK) – Also based in the Kurdistan Region, it was estimated to have 1,000 fighters in 2017.
What is the history of US involvement with Kurdish resistance groups in the Middle East?
The Kurds are an ethnic minority spread throughout the Middle East with a shared language and culture. They do not have their own state and have historically been marginalized in all countries, mainly in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkiye.
For decades, various Kurdish armed groups have sought self-government in Turkiye, Syria and Iran.
In Iraq, Kurdish nationalist groups achieved some success during the 1991 Gulf War by working with the United States, which helped establish the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) also trained and armed its army, known as the Peshmerga, after the US invaded Iraq in 2003. In 2005, the semi-autonomous region was officially recognized in Iraq’s constitution.
Since 2017, Washington has also armed and trained the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian Kurdish militia that Turkiye classifies as a “terrorist” group due to its ties to the outlawed PKK. The group, which successfully resisted ISIL (ISIS), now forms the main component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). It controlled Raqqa and other ISIL strongholds.
However, when military clashes began with Syrian forces under the government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa last August, Washington distanced itself from the group and backed Damascus. In January this year, the SDF signed an agreement with the Syrian government to integrate into government forces. In exchange, the Syrian government recognized the rights of the Kurds.
Meanwhile, in Turkiye, the PKK, whose presence in northern Iraq has long been a source of tension with Ankara, declared a ceasefire in March 2025, following a call from its jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, to disarm.
How does the Kurdish resistance in Iran compare to others?
Iranian Kurds opposed the Iranian government even before the formation of the Islamic Republic in 1979, Rodgers said, and Tehran’s current weakness gives them the opportunity to advance their political goals in the country.
However, the new coalition of multiple diverse groups is unprecedented, the analyst added, and its internal dynamics will be a key and decisive factor in the role that Kurdish groups will play in this war.
“US support is helpful, especially in terms of attacking security force infrastructure with airstrikes, but they will probably be cautious about relying too much on Washington, especially an administration as capricious and disorganized as Trump’s,” Rodgers said, noting how Washington abandoned the Kurds in Syria.
Unlike the divided Iranian movements, the Iraqi Kurds have long united to form a devolved government enshrined in the Iraqi constitution, built an advanced economy, and secured substantial relations with a wide range of foreign countries. That is something Kurdish groups also hope to establish in a democratic Iran, he said.
“I think it’s unlikely that the Trump administration has made any commitment to the Iranian Kurds about supporting their political goals,” Rodgers said, adding that the U.S. plan “doesn’t seem fully thought out at all.”
