U.S., Kurds discuss potential Iran military operation, sources say

• Summary

• Iranian Kurdish militias consult US on attacking regime forces

• US military support requested for potential Kurdish operation

• Operation could impact regional stability

WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - Iranian Kurdish militias have consulted with the United States in recent days about whether, and how, to attack Iran’s security forces in the ​western part of the country, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.

The Iranian Kurdish coalition of groups based on the ‌Iran-Iraq border in the semiautonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan has been training to mount such an attack in hopes of weakening the country’s military, as the United States and Israel pound Iranian targets with bombs and missiles.

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The goal would be to create room for Iranians opposed to the Islamic regime to rise up now that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other top officials ​have been killed since the U.S.-Israeli attack began on Saturday, two of the sources said.

A final decision has not yet been made on the ​operation and its possible timing, added the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk freely about sensitive military ⁠planning.

The groups have requested U.S. military support and Iraqi leaders in Erbil and Baghdad have also been in touch with the Trump administration in recent days, ​they said.

The forces are in talks with the United States about CIA help to provide weapons, two of the sources said.

CNN was the first to report on ​the CIA’s involvement with the groups and the potential ground operation. Axios said this week that President Trump held a telephone call with two of Iraqi Kurdistan’s top leaders.

Reuters could not independently confirm the extent of the CIA’s involvement in the planning of the operation, if it had facilitated the weapons or if any U.S. forces planned to go into Iran ​with the Kurdish groups.

The CIA declined to comment. The White House and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Kurdish Regional Government ​did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

KURDISH OPERATION WOULD REQUIRE U.S. SUPPORT

Any operation from Iraq would probably require significant U.S. military and intelligence support.

The Pentagon says the two ‌U.S. bases ⁠in Erbil have supported the international coalition fighting Islamic State militants.

Kurdish groups in Iraqi Kurdistan have a long history of working with the U.S. but their shifting allegiances and ideologies have at times strained ties with Washington.

The United States worked with some of the Kurdish groups in Iraq both during the Iraq War and the battle against ISIS.

But it is unclear how successful the Iranian Kurdish groups would be in their fight inside Iran. The groups’ fighters have varying degrees of ​experience on the battlefield.

A source cited by ​CNN said the plan would be ⁠for Kurdish armed forces to take on Iranian security forces to make it easier for an uprising of unarmed Iranians in the country’s cities.

It is not clear exactly how such an operation in Iran by the Kurds will be received ​by other countries in the region.

An armed uprising by the Iranian Kurds could have serious consequences for Iran’s stability.

It ​could add fuel to ⁠an armed separatist movement among the country’s ethnic Baluch minority that keeps close ties with separatists in Pakistan’s neighboring restive province of Baluchistan.

It is unlikely that Islamabad would tolerate any move toward Baluch independence.

Turkey, a strong supporter of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, has seen the integration deal between Damascus and Kurdish forces as critical to restoring state ⁠authority across ​Syria.

It had threatened its own military operation against the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Forces (SDF) in the north, ​if the group did not agree to come under central government control.

Ankara has been working to advance its long-running efforts towards securing peace with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and is unlikely to ​be sympathetic towards the arming of Kurdish groups close to its borders.

Reporting by Erin Banco, Humeyra Pamuk and Jonathan Landay; Editing by Don Durfee and Clarence Fernandez

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Erin Banco

Thomson Reuters

Erin Banco is a national security correspondent focusing on the intelligence community. She covers everything from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to U.S. covert operations overseas. She previously worked at POLITICO as a national security reporter. Banco has a long history covering the Middle East region, from Cairo to Baghdad to Aleppo where she’s reported on the Arab Spring and its aftermath, including the civil war in Syria and the rise of ISIS. Her 2017 book, Pipe Dreams, focuses on the development of the oil and gas industry in the northern Kurdistan region of Iraq. Banco attended The University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she majored in Arabic and journalism. She earned a master’s in public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in 2014.

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Humeyra Pamuk

Thomson Reuters

Humeyra Pamuk is a senior foreign policy correspondent based in Washington DC. She covers the U.S. State Department, regularly traveling with U.S. Secretary of State. During her 20 years with Reuters, she has had postings in London, Dubai, Cairo and Turkey, covering everything from the Arab Spring and Syria’s civil war to numerous Turkish elections and the Kurdish insurgency in the southeast. In 2017, she won the Knight-Bagehot fellowship program at Columbia University’s School of Journalism. She holds a BA in International Relations and an MA on European Union studies.

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