US-Armed Kurdish Forces Yet to Attack Bombarded First by Iranian Forces

Press TV, Iran’s state broadcaster, reported that Iranian forces had launched an operation targeting ‘anti-Iran separatist forces’ in the Kurdish region in the neighbouring country of Iraq. A video clip posted on X by Press TV showed explosions illuminating the night sky during the operation. The channel did not specify the location of the strikes. Al Jazeera reported that several explosions occurred in the Sulaymaniyah Governorate in northern Iraq. Local sources said the strikes targeted the headquarters of the Kurdistan Labour Association, or KOMALA, a Kurdish Iranian armed group in Iraq. The attacks come amid reports that Iranian Kurdish armed groups had consulted with the United States in recent days about whether, and how, to attack Iranian security forces in the western part of the country. Reuters reported that the border-based coalition of Iranian Kurdish groups had trained to carry out such an attack in order to weaken Tehran’s military. Earlier, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency denied reports of Kurdish fighters crossing into Iran from Iraq. The Jerusalem Post reported that hundreds of Kurdish fighters had begun ground activity inside Iran from areas near the Iraqi border, a claim confirmed by Israeli and American officials to The Post on Wednesday. Kurdish forces operating along the Iran–Iraq border are regarded as among the armed opposition groups capable of challenging the Tehran regime. According to Kurdish sources, the forces have prepared in recent days to participate in a ground operation in western Iran with the aim of pressing Iranian security forces and dispersing them to various areas.