Tehran, Iran. President Donald Trump said he supported Iranian Kurdish forces in Iraq launching attacks against Iran as the seven-day conflict in the Middle East widened, with Azerbaijan warning it would retaliate for being targeted by Iranian missiles.
Israeli strikes and Iranian attacks on regional and U.S. targets
Israel said on Friday it had started a “broad-scale” wave of attacks against infrastructure targets in Tehran, as Gulf cities came under renewed bombardment by Iran.
Iran launched an overnight drone attack on the U.S. Al Udied airbase in Qatar, described by Qatari officials as the biggest U.S. base in the Middle East, with no reported casualties.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Iranian forces had targeted the Ramat David airbase and a radar site in Israel, the Al-Adiri camp in Kuwait where U.S. forces are stationed, and carried out a drone attack on a base hosting U.S. troops in Erbil, Iraq. A Guards spokesperson said new initiatives and weapons would soon be deployed to confront Israeli and U.S. aggression, without providing details.
Conflict expands to multiple countries and the Indian Ocean
The war has now seen Iran target Israel, the Gulf states, Cyprus, Turkey and Azerbaijan, and spread to the Indian Ocean where a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian naval ship.
“This was an ‘existential war’ for Iran, leaving us with no choice but to respond wherever American attacks originate from,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said at the Raisina Dialogues conference in Delhi on Friday.
Trump comments and Kurdish militia consultations
On the possibility of Iranian Kurdish forces entering Iran from neighbouring Iraq, Trump told Reuters on Thursday: “I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that, I’d be all for it.”
Two Iranian drone attacks targeted an Iranian opposition camp in Iraqi Kurdistan on Thursday, security sources said.
Iranian Kurdish militias have consulted with the United States about whether, and how, to attack Iran’s security forces in the country, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.
What do you think Trump’s comments could mean for the role of Iranian Kurdish forces in the conflict?
