Iranian forces have hit Kurdish armed group headquarters across the border in Iraq, Iran’s Press TV reported Wednesday.
State broadcaster Press TV released footage on X showing night-time explosions during what it described as an operation against “anti-Iran separatist forces,” without pinpointing the exact locations struck.
Independent reports pointed to multiple blasts across Sulaimaniyah province in northern Iraq, where local sources said the Komala — the Kurdistan Toilers Association, an Iranian Kurdish armed faction — had its headquarters targeted.
The strikes came as the Express reported that Kurdish coalition groups strung along the Iran-Iraq frontier had been putting fighters through their paces in preparation for cross-border operations, having sought American guidance in recent days on the feasibility and timing of any move against Iranian security forces in the country’s west.
Tehran’s own Tasnim news agency pushed back against claims that Kurdish fighters had already set foot on Iranian soil.
The Express revealed late Wednesday that the long-anticipated push into Iran had apparently got underway, with thousands of Kurdish fighters moving across from Iraq in what intelligence sources characterised as a CIA-backed operation — though the picture on the ground remained deeply contested.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi raised the alarm in a call with Bafel Talabani, head of Iraq’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, warning of “terrorist movements” massing at the Iraqi border — a conversation Tehran’s foreign ministry subsequently confirmed took place.
A US official speaking to Fox News put it plainly: thousands of Iraqi Kurds had gone on the offensive inside Iran.
A senior figure from the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan gave i24News a precise timeline: “The ground military movements by Kurdish forces against Iran have already started since the midnight of March 2.”
That same source reported that Iranian troops had pulled out of the border city of Mariwan on March 3 to dig in defensively further back. Unverified battlefield reports described Kurdish fighters establishing control over high ground in Bayow, west of Marivan, vacated by retreating Iranian border forces.
From Israel, chief political analyst Amit Segal relayed confirmation from senior officials: “Israeli officials confirm that Kurdish forces have engaged Iranian forces.”
The groundwork for the operation stretched back months, with CNN having earlier revealed that the CIA had been quietly supplying weapons to Kurdish groups in a bid to kindle a broader popular revolt against the Iranian government. Kurdish representatives had separately told i24News that their forces were on the move from Iraqi territory.