Iraqi Kurdish officials have told The Associated Press that thousands of battle-hardened Kurds in northern Iraq are preparing for a potential cross-border military operation in Iran with U.S. backing. The three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
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She says she's thriving'Christ is king' becomes a loaded phrase in US political debates, especially on the rightHouse joins Senate in rejecting war powers resolution to halt Trump’s attacks on IranBritney Spears arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugsTrump's White House ballroom is too big, architect says, as 2nd panel prepares to vote on itDahmen loses a full PGA Tour card and works his way into a $20M event at Bay HillAfter her arrest, a timeline of events in the life of Britney Spears since her conservatorship endedJudge rules companies are entitled to refunds for Trump tariffs overturned by the Supreme CourtViral phenomenon in Argentina has young people identifying themselves as animalsToucan seen flying around Sin City has been rescuedColorectal cancer is rising in younger adults. Here's who is most at risk and symptoms to watch forThe sea is higher than we thought and millions more are at risk, study findsWhat to know about how GLP-1 medications might fight addictionBaby is born after the rarest of pregnancies, defying all oddsWhere is Rachael Ray now? She says she's thriving'Christ is king' becomes a loaded phrase in US political debates, especially on the rightMember of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan PDKI stands at a checkpoint leading to their base in Koya district of Irbil, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. The three officials said U.S. President Donald Trump and the heads of the two main Kurdish parties in Iraq discussed the situation Sunday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly., would significantly challenge Iranian defenses but also risk pulling Iraq — where some of the Iranian Kurdish groups have bases — deeper into the conflict.are among the largest stateless ethnic groups in the world, with roughly 30 million living as minorities in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. They speak their own language, with several dialects, and most are Sunni Muslims. Although Kurds have never had their own state, they govern a semiautonomous area in northern Iraq and for years de facto ruled much of northeastern Syria. Many have waged insurgency campaigns seeking to establish their own nation called Kurdistan. The 9 million Kurds in Iran live mainly in a stretch of land along the country’s western borders with Iraq and Turkey. They have a long history of grievances and rebellions against both the current Islamic Republic and the monarchy that preceded it. Before the war, Amnesty International said Kurds face “systemic discrimination” in Iran and that in the past “security forces killed or injured many unarmed Kurdish cross-border couriers with impunity.”A number of Kurdish opposition groups have taken up arms against Iranian authorities over the years. Some have established bases in neighboring Iraq, which was a point of friction between Tehran and the central Iraqi government in Baghdad until 2023, when they reached In the run up to the current war, five Iranian Kurdish groups formed a coalition dedicated to overthrowing the Islamic Republic and establishing the Kurdish people’s right to self-determination. On Thursday, a sixth group joined. “For the first time, all major Kurdish parties have come together as one in a new coalition — a historic step toward shaping a new future for Kurds and a democratic Iran,” said Abdullah Mohtadi, secretary general of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan.Kurds have rarely come out on the winning side in their interactions with U.S. presidents.In 1988, President Ronald Reagan did not stop Iraqi forces from using chemical weapons against the Kurds. In 1990, President George Bush encouraged the Kurds to rise up against Saddam Hussein after he invaded Kuwait but then stood aside as Iraqi forces brutally crushed the rebellion.It is unlikely that Turkey, a key member of NATO and potential host to war refugees, would accept Western weapons transfers to Kurdish guerrillas even if their targets were in Iran. Turkey has fought a brutal military campaign since 1984 against an armed Kurdish insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and spilled into neighboring Iraq and Syria. On Thursday, Turkey voiced opposition to Iranian Kurdish dissident groups’ possible involvement in the conflict in Iran, warning of greater instability in the region. Turkey considers the main Kurdish dissident group, PJAK, a terrorist group with links to separatists fighting Turkey. Turkey’s defense ministry said Thursday that PJAK’s activities “negatively affect not only Iran’s security but also the overall peace and stability of the region.”Violence has already erupted across the Kurdish lands sprawling across the border between Iran and Iraq. As Israel and the U.S. have struck targets across Iran, Iranian forces and its allies in Iraq launched missiles and drones targeting U.S. military bases and the U.S. Consulate in Irbil as well as the Iranian Kurdish groups’ bases. Khalil Nadiri, an official with the Kurdistan Freedom Party based in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, said Wednesday that some of their forces had moved to areas near the Iranian border in Sulaymaniyah province and were on standby.on protests. State media then labeled them “terrorists,” without offering any evidence to support the claim, a crime Iran punishes with death. Officials with Iraq’s Kurdish regional government and Iraqi Kurdish political parties, meanwhile, have said they do not want attacks to be launched against Iran from their territory, fearing a harsh response. Peshawa Hawramani, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Regional Government, said in a statement that “allegations claiming that we are part of a plan to arm and send Kurdish opposition parties into Iranian territory are completely unfounded” and that the Iraqi Kurdish parties do not want to “expand the war and tensions in the region.”Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Istanbul, Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad, and Stella Martany and Rashid Yahya in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.
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