Recently, armed Kurdish separatist groups have attempted to cross into Iran from Iraq, stirring worries that the unrest in Iran might draw in foreign militants and further destabilize the region.
According to Iranian officials, the infiltration efforts, which have seen the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) taking charge of the response, coincide with a significant crackdown on protests against the Iranian government.
The Tasnim news agency reported that armed militias from Iraq have also crossed the border into western and northwestern Iran.
Sources, including a senior Iranian official, informed Reuters that Turkey’s intelligence agency, MIT, has alerted the Revolutionary Guards about Kurdish fighters trying to breach the Iran-Iraq border.
Iranian officials claim that clashes erupted after these attempts to cross, accusing the militants of seeking to exploit the unrest to create more instability.
It’s estimated that about 30 million Kurds reside in the Middle East, primarily in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
In another development, Turkey has labeled a Kurdish extremist group in northern Iraq as a terrorist organization and has initiated a military operation against it. Turkish forces are specifically targeting PKK bases within Iraq.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has announced a plan to disarm by 2025, signaling an end to decades of conflict with Turkey.
Although MIT and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office have not commented on the incidents at the Iranian border, there is a warning that any intervention in Iran could lead to a regional crisis.
Iranian authorities accuse both Iraq and Turkey of allowing the movement of fighters and weapons into their territory. Meanwhile, reports indicate that the death toll from the government’s crackdown on protests has reached over 2,500.
President Trump mentioned that he has received information suggesting the crackdown might be easing, although he didn’t specify the sources. He stated they were “very important sources of information” from the opposing side.
On a separate note, Iran reportedly closed its airspace to most flights for a brief period on Wednesday, lasting a little over two hours, as indicated by aviation tracking sources.
