The CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces in hopes of prompting an uprising in Iran in the coming days, according to a report.
The Trump administration has been in active discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish leaders in Iraq about how to get them military support as tensions escalate in the Middle East, multiple sources told CNN.
Iranian Kurdish opposition forces will take part in the ground operation slated to occur in Western Iran in the coming days, a senior Iranian Kurdish official told the outlet.
A police station and one of the judiciary buildings in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar were heavily targeted and attacked by airstrikes on March 3, 2026. ZUMAPRESS.com“We believe we have a big chance now,” the source said.
The militias have been eyeing an opening since the start of the war and are expecting support from the US and Israel, the source added.
Thousands of forces of Iranian Kurdish armed groups are operating along the Iraq-Iran border. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been striking Kurdish groups, announcing on Tuesday that it had launched dozens of drones at them, the outlet reported.
President Trump spoke with Mustafa Hijri, the President of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, which was targeted by the IRGC, on Tuesday, a senior official said.
A soldier guards near a Street blocked with barbed wire to prevent protesters from passing after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s death on March 3, 2026, in Srinagar, Kashmir Umer Qadir/Eyepix Group/ShutterstockAxios first reported that Trump had also called Iraqi Kurdish leaders on Sunday to discuss the US’s military operation in Iran and to assess whether they could work together.
A person familiar with the discussions between the Kurdish groups and the US told the outlet that the strategy would be for Kurdish armed forces to battle Iranian security forces, to make it easier for unarmed Iranians to take to the streets.
President Donald Trump attends a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office at the White House on March 3, 2026 in Washington, D.C. ZUMAPRESS.comThe Kurds could also deplete the Iranian regime’s military resources, with other possible strategic ideas centering on whether the opposition group could capture territory in northern Iran to create a buffer zone for Israel, a US official added.
The son of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was reportedly elected to replace him, four days after Khamenei and dozens of his top henchmen were assassinated in a US and Israeli-led military campaign on Saturday.
Six US service members were killed in an Iranian drone strike during Operation Epic Fury, and at least 18 service members have been left seriously wounded as a result of the war with Iran.
Gulf states with US embassies have been ensnared in the conflict in a series of retaliatory attacks by Iran.
In Iran, the death toll has risen to 787 people, including 165 people killed in a missile strike on a primary school in Minab, according to Reuters.
