As US-Israeli airstrikes hit Iran, Kurdish forces eye a ground offensive

With the continuing US-Israeli air campaign over Iran, one question remains: will there be a ground offensive aimed at bringing about the fall of the regime?

Media reports suggesting that Kurdish militias have already launched an offensive in western Iran are not accurate, Euractiv has learned. Yet there are clear indications that such an operation may be imminent.

“There has long been a great deal of activity in the border region between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iranian Kurdistan,” said Thomas von der Osten-Sacken, executive director of Wadi, an aid organisation based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRG).

In and around the KRG capital of Erbil, many factions of groups originating from Iranian Kurdistan maintain bases and training facilities, some hosting several hundred fighters.

The Kurdish armed formations in Iranian Kurdistan, along with the Baloch, are currently the only groups inside Iran capable of holding territory by force, an essential precondition for the collapse of the…