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 strains of the conflict.
The potential of Iranian Kurdish fighters getting 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 may 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 informed Al Jazeera they command navy formations and organisational buildings inside Kurdish areas in Iran, along with headquarters and bases within the Kurdish area of northern Iraq.
Kurdish teams from either side of the border flourished after Iraq’s defeat within the 1990-1991 Gulf Conflict 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 notably effectively insulated following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
On February 22, 2026, 5 Kurdish teams primarily based 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 conflict 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 Get together of Iranian Kurdistan, claimed his celebration had sleeper cells and networks that participated in antigovernment protests in Iran, which happened in December and January, till being violently crushed by safety forces.
He additionally mentioned that because the begin of the conflict, 13 fighters linked to his celebration have been killed in Iranian assaults.
“The outbreak of conflict has modified the circumstances inside the Kurdish areas, particularly after the Iranian authorities tightened safety measures and suppressed the protests,” Alyar defined.
“The celebration has not acquired any navy help from the USA, nor from European or Arab nations, regardless of the calls for to get such assist.”
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 experiences of US intelligence working with Kurdish fighters and that areas alongside the Iraq-Iran border have been notably closely attacked because the begin of the conflict. Some have interpreted this as an indication that Washington is perhaps critical 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 could be a vastly dangerous endeavour and would possible result in big casualties for his or her facet.
“These days, there are dangers, particularly given the heavy deployment of Iranian forces within the Kurdish areas and alongside the border with the Kurdistan area,” Alyar mentioned.
The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Authorities had requested Iranian Kurdish events to chorus from actions that would hurt native safety and pursuits, given the Iranian response.
Numerous Iranian Kurdish teams, reportedly with 1000’s 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 wish to assist forces inside Iran with the intention 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 Get together of Iran, informed Al Jazeera.
Sharifi rejected claims circulating on social media that his group had acquired weapons or navy help from the US or different nations.
Nonetheless, the Iranian navy has launched navy operations towards Iranian Kurdish teams in northern Iraq, together with experiences 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 occasions because the starting of the conflict.
The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Authorities had put stress on Iranian Kurdish events to restrict their actions earlier than this present conflict, 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, comparable to oil fields, have additionally been hit in suspected drone and missile assaults.
“We now have 1000’s of fighters… We may have accomplished extra inside Iran, however we place the safety and stability of the Kurdistan Area on the prime of our priorities, and we don’t wish to hurt the Kurds in Iraq,” Sharifi mentioned.
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.
Tough equation
Iraq as a complete got here underneath 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 professional on Iranian affairs and an Iranian Kurdish citizen, believes that the Iranian Kurdish events face a extremely complicated equation.
“Iraq’s Kurdistan Area has given these events an area for political, organisational, and navy exercise, however on the similar time it has made the area weak to the repercussions of any confrontation between them and Tehran,” Palani mentioned.
“The absence of direct Arab, European, and American assist represents one of the crucial distinguished elements stopping the Iranian Kurdish events from making a call to escalate,” he defined, including that Iran, over the previous years, has managed to construct intensive affect in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, along with supporting its allies within the Palestinian territory.
“Arab nations haven’t in return offered comparable assist to the Arab-Iranian opposition, notably within the Ahwaz area… This actuality makes it troublesome to count on the Iranian Kurdish events to acquire direct Arab assist ought to they determine to open a navy entrance inside Iran,” he mentioned.
The Iraqi authorities mentioned Iraq should not be a launchpad for assaults towards neighbouring nations.
Now, one of the crucial essential questions for the Iranian Kurdish events is whether or not the present conflict 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 may carry a historic alternative, however, on the similar time, it may result in a serious safety vacuum and turmoil. The following part of this battle may very well be essential for Iranian Kurds, Iran, the US, Iraq and the broader area.
