Iranian Kurdish fighters say they’re able to fight, but waiting for orders – National

Degala, Iraq — A rusted metal gate and a wind-torn flag mark the doorway to the Kurdistan Freedom Party’s base outside the northern Iraqi city of Erbil.

An anti-aircraft gun sits on the plateau behind the encampment, which consists of rows of cinder-block buildings that back onto scrubland hills.

A Kurdish fighter wearing camo fatigues, scarf and trainers, Ali Mahmoud Awara was nervous about being there, given the war round the corner in Iran.

“All of our bases have been targeted by the Iranians,” he said.

The armed group Awara belongs to, which can be often known as PAK, is one in all a handful that operate out of Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region.

Their ultimate goal is bigger autonomy for the thousands and thousands of ethnic Kurds who’re spread across the region with out a homeland of their very own.

In addition they yearn for the demise of the Iranian regime, which has long suppressed the rights, language and culture of the Kurdish minority.

In consequence, the American and Israeli war that began on Feb. 28 has set off heated debate about whether Iranian Kurdish fighters should join the fight.

Awara is actually willing.

He was born in Iran but crossed into Iraq a dozen years ago to enlist in a Kurdish group that was fighting the Islamic State.

Now his sights are set on Tehran.

Awara said he wants nothing greater than to return home to topple the Islamic regime he despises. He longs for it “with my heart and my body,” he said.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been trying to stop Kurds like Awara from crossing the border from Iraq to open a brand new front within the war.

On March 4, what Awara said were three Iranian Fattah missiles struck the Kurdistan Freedom Party base, targeting the office of the group’s leader, Hussein Yazdanpanah.

A ten-year veteran of the group, Kawan Rashidi, was killed, and three others were injured. Yazdanpanah was not in his office on the time and was unharmed.

“They don’t want the Kurdish movement to progress,” Awara said.

Three days after the attack, a pile of metal scraps that the fighters said were missile fragments lay on the debris as a testament to what had caused the wreckage.

Due to ongoing missile and drone launches, the camp was all but empty. When Global News visited on Saturday, the fighters were outnumbered by cats and dogs.

Kurdish fighters interviewed by Global News were confident they were prepared to assist tackle Iranian forces.

The query is whether or not they should.

U.S. President Donald Trump initially said he was “all for” having them start a ground war against the embattled government in Tehran.

Over the weekend, he reportedly reversed himself, saying that while the Kurds were willing to hitch the war, he had told them it was already “complicated enough.”

Either way, whilst Kurdish leaders sit on the fence about whether to become involved, Iranian missile and drone strikes on their facilities have dragged them into the conflict.

The White House has denied reports that the CIA was arming the Kurds, but American forces appear to have been heavily targeting Iran’s predominantly Kurdish west.

By taking out Iranian weapons and military facilities near the Iraq border, the U.S. could also be attempting to clear a path for a Kurdish rebellion.

And with Trump demanding Iran’s “unconditional give up,” but saying he’s unwilling to send U.S. ground troops, the Kurds could help tip the balance.

But there are concerns that a U.S.-backed Kurdish offensive could set off a civil war that may divide Iran along multiple ethnic lines.

Also, Iraq, which was at war with Iran from 1980 to 1988 and continues to be emerging from the devastation of ISIS, is reluctant to get drawn into one other conflict.

Already facing attacks on its U.S. assets, hotels and Kurdish bases, Iraq’s northern region could face worse, were it to turn out to be a staging ground, and Iran has threatened as much.

And Kurdish groups are wary of the U.S., which has a record of constructing use of them once they are needed to advance American interests after which abandoning them.

“That history makes the Kurdish groups cautious,” said Yerevan Saeed, director of the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace at American University.

“They’re reportedly searching for political assurances from the Trump administration before fully committing,” Saeed told the Atlantic Council.

The Kurdistan Freedom Party’s spokesperson confirmed his organization was in talks with American and Israeli officials, but said no coordination had resulted.

But in an interview, conducted outdoors because of fears the party office could be attacked, Khalil Kani Sanani said the Iranian regime’s days were numbered.

Although he denied receiving weapons from the U.S. or Israel, he said Iranian Kurdish fighters were well-prepared to fight should they determine to participate.

As for the recent attack on his leader’s office, Sanani brushed it off as an admission by Iran of the strength of the Kurdish armed groups in Iraq.

Despite its missile and drone attacks, he said Iran was not able to pose a threat to the Kurds. “I feel Iran could be very weak,” Sanani said.

The Kurdish struggle against Iran and the U.S.-Israeli war are different conflicts with a standard enemy, said a senior member of one other group, the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran.

“The fact is, this can be a U.S. and Israeli war,” Hassan Sharafi said.

But regardless that his organization had kept away from crossing the border to hitch the fight, its facilities had nonetheless been attacked six times up to now ten days, he said.

The interview took place after Global News was initially told to depart the party office because of a possible drone attack.

On Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran was ending attacks on neighbouring countries and was as an alternative calling for diplomacy.

But when Awara visited his base later that very same day, he told reporters to evacuate because of a missile warning. Explosions were later audible, although removed from the location.

That night, one other Kurdish base was attacked in Sulaymaniah, in addition to Erbil airport. The president of the Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani, responded with a rebuke.

“Everyone must clearly understand that patience and restraint have limits,” he wrote in his statement, warning that “this deliberate incitement toward fighting can have grave consequences.”

Removed from stopping, the attacks have escalated, prompting Kurdish factions to issue a joint statement assuring their members that “the struggle for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic” would proceed.

Whether Awara and his colleagues will get the prospect to tackle Iran’s regime is a choice for his leaders, he said.

“We’re ready for fighting,” he said. “The Kurdish people need freedom.”

They simply need their marching orders first.

“We’re waiting.”

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca