All coming into focus now... The Kurds will lead the ground assault on Iran

[WarGamer]

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/03/politics/cia-arming-kurds-iran

Washington and Erbil, Iraq
—
The CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran, multiple people familiar with the plan told CNN.

The Trump administration has been in active discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish leaders in Iraq about providing them with military support, the sources said.

Iranian Kurdish armed groups have thousands of forces operating along the Iraq-Iran border, primarily in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Several of the groups have released public statements since the beginning of the war hinting at imminent action and urging Iranian military forces to defect. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been striking Kurdish groups and said on Tuesday that it targeted Kurdish forces with dozens of drones.

https://www.axios.com/2026/03/02/trump-iran-war-kurds-iraq

President Trump spoke by phone with Kurdish leaders in Iraq on Sunday to discuss the U.S.-Israel war with Iran and what might come next, three sources with knowledge of the calls told Axios.

Why it matters: The Kurds have thousands of soldiers along the Iran-Iraq border and control strategic areas that could be significant as the war develops. Iraq's Kurds also have close ties to Iran's Kurdish minority.

Zoom in: Trump spoke to leaders from the two main Kurdish factions in Iraq — Masoud Barzani and Bafel Talabani — a day after the Saturday bombing campaign began, two of the sources said.

[surfered]

1. What will Turkey think about us arming the Kurds?

[WarGamer]

3. Good catch... they won't be happy and reports indicate Trump already talking to Erdogan about it

[Volaris]

6. That turkey gets to slaughter them all as soon as they've served their purpose.

[WarGamer]

16. Trump's betrayal of the Kurds in Syria was disgusting...

[rampartd]

2. we have betrayed the kurds to genocidal enemies several times

i hope that isn't the plan again.

[leftstreet]

5. +1

[ret5hd]

7. oh...it's the plan.

[ananda]

17. To Trump, the Kurds are just expendable tools.

It's hard for me to grasp why the Kurds would ever
go along with this.

[Volaris]

9. We know damn well thats EXACTLY the plan.

[rampartd]

10. +1

[Hugin]

4. This after he threw them under a bus in Syria?

I am still in wait and see.

[WarGamer]

11. The Kurds have been hung out to dry by the US multiple times in the last 50 years

Ford, Bush and Trump

[dpibel]

8. "Thousands"!! Should be a cakewalk!

I mean, it's not as if Iran has anything available to go up against thousands...

[WarGamer]

13. The articles describe the way they would be used...

Obviously not a convoy of armies running through the mountains to Tehran.

Right now we're in the post D-Day invasion stage... with air supremacy anything that moves on the battlefield dies. When the Kurds cross the border from Iraq they will have US and Israeli air cover

[dpibel]

18. D-Day: June 6, 1944. VE-Day: May 8, 1945

Well, all right then!

Thanks for the explainer.

Tell me the one about how, given that the U.S. started with total control of the air, Afghanistan was over in a heartbeat.

[Johnny2X2X]

12. Trump completely left the Kurds to die during his first term

And now he's arming them?

The time to do this was last year.

[WarGamer]

14. Article says they've been arming for a while covertly

[mike_c]

15. again?!

Hasn't the US betrayed the Kurd's before? Do they imagine that TSF will keep the faith?

[GCG]

19. This is going to be a Sectarian war

This time the Kurds will be the proxy army used by the US against Iran. There is nothing so bloody as a religious war that began centuries ago!