Iranian Kurdish opposition parties are preparing to launch what they describe as a “comprehensive uprising” in the Kurdistan regions of western Iran, taking advantage of the military strikes carried out by the United States and Israel against Iranian military sites since the outbreak of the war with Tehran.
According to information obtained by Alhurra from leaders of the Iranian Kurdish opposition, including field commanders, the air and missile strikes that targeted military sites in Kurdish areas of western Iran destroyed about 60 percent of the main bases and camps of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during the first seven days of the war.
However, these leaders also indicate that Tehran still retains an important military infrastructure in the region, including missile and drone bases and weapons depots, many of which were built in underground facilities.
According to the same sources, mountainous areas near the Iraqi border host a network of tunnels and military installations used by the IRGC to conceal missile launch platforms and weapons stockpiles.
Opposition sources say these sites were recently used to launch missile and drone attacks toward Israel, in addition to strikes targeting areas in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Over the past years, the IRGC has strengthened its military presence in Kurdish cities in western Iran by transferring military units and establishing missile and drone bases in several provinces and cities, including Ilam, Kermanshah, Mariwan, Paveh, Sanandaj, Javanrud, Oshnavieh, and Sardasht, while also expanding the activities of intelligence agencies in those areas, according to Iranian activists and opposition figures.
A Popular and Armed Uprising
Amanj Zibaei, a leader in the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, believes the current circumstances could open the door to a broad uprising against the Iranian regime.
Zibaei told Alhurra that protests in Iranian Kurdistan “have not stopped over the past years,” but that the ongoing military strikes have “weakened the regime’s security apparatus.”
He added that any anticipated uprising could combine popular protests and armed action, emphasizing that the Kurdish forces’ goal is “to defend the Kurdish people and strive to secure their rights.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has encouraged Iranian Kurdish forces in Iraq to attack Iran. Responding to the possibility of Iranian Kurdish forces entering Iran, Trump told Reuters on Thursday:
“I think it’s great that they want to do that, and I fully support them.”
On February 22, about a week before the war began, six major Iranian Kurdish organizations announced the formation of a political-military alliance opposed to the Islamic Republic, which has ruled the country since 1979, and aimed at defending what they describe as “the Kurdish people’s right to self-determination.”
Contacts With Washington
According to Western reports, undisclosed contacts have taken place in recent months between representatives of these parties and U.S. officials. The discussions focused on the future of the conflict with Iran and the role of local forces in weakening Tehran’s influence inside the country.
The reports also indicated that a coalition of Iranian Kurdish groups based along the Iran–Iraq border within the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is conducting training exercises in preparation for a ground offensive supported by U.S. air power.
Amjad Banahi, a leader in the Komala Party, said Iranian Kurdish opposition parties maintain strong relations with Washington and other Western countries.
“We have asked them for support. We are awaiting international cooperation with us to confront the regime. It is expected—we are just waiting for the right moment so that we can save the people from this regime,” Banahi told Alhurra.
Security Agreement with Iraq
Over the past three years, Iranian Kurdish parties have been forced to withdraw their medium and heavy weapons and move away from the Iran–Iraq border under a security agreement signed between the Iraqi and Iranian governments.
The agreement stipulated the relocation of fighters from these organizations to camps far from the border within the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and it also restricted their military and political activities.
However, leaders of these parties say that this did not stop Iranian attacks targeting their headquarters and the camps housing their fighters’ families within the region.
In response, Tehran warned that it could expand its strikes if the Kurdistan Regional Government allowed these groups to return to the border or carry out operations inside Iran.
Ali Akbar Ahmadian, the Iranian Supreme Leader’s representative on the Defense Council, said Iran has so far targeted U.S. bases, Israeli targets, and Kurdish groups in the region, but warned that all facilities in the Kurdistan Region could become targets if its territory were used “as a launching point for attacks against the Islamic Republic.”
Kurds Seek to Exploit Wartime Conditions
Nevertheless, Iran’s Kurds appear eager to take advantage of the current wartime conditions to launch their move.
Khalil Naderi, spokesman for the opposition Kurdistan Freedom Party, said that “Kurdish parties are ready this time to seize the opportunity, reach our people inside the country at the appropriate moment, and begin liberating the land from the Iranian regime.”
“This is what the United States and Israel expect from us Kurds and from other peoples in Iran,” Naderi added in remarks to Alhurra.
“In return, we expect the United States and Israel to provide us with the necessary support so that we can wage this war.”
Kurds make up around 10 percent of Iran’s population of roughly 90 million, according to the latest World Bank estimates from 2024.
Kurds are concentrated in northwestern Iran, in a strip stretching from the far border with Turkey to the Iran–Iraq border, particularly in the provinces of West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan (bordering Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah province), and Kermanshah, which lies near Diyala province in eastern Iraq.
The article is a translation of the original Arabic.
