ON A KURDISH BASE NEAR THE BORDER WITH IRAN – Soon, there could be military boots on the ground crossing into the Islamic Republic of Iran from this terrain of fertile valleys, deep gorges and ancient Mesopotamian trade routes perched below the mountainous border dividing Iraq and Iran.
They may not be American ones.
The White House says ground operations are "not part of the plan right now" asthe U.S.-Israel war against Iranenters its third week. PresidentDonald Trumphas reportedly alleged Iran is "about to surrender," though there is no indication of that from Tehran. According to Israeli and U.S. officials, the war is designed to hunt down key figures in Iran's clerical regime while crippling Tehran's long-range ballistic missile arsenal and nuclear program.
Still, as thewar barrels forwardon an uncertain trajectory, exiled Iranian Kurdish opposition officials and fighters − "Peshmerga," a name that translates in English to "those who face death" − tell USA TODAY they have an invasion plan ready to activate. All they're waiting for, they say, is U.S. military air cover to launch the operation.
Kurdish fighters prepare for action in Iran, await U.S. help
"When we cross the border, the United States should secure the skies for us and protect us from above," said Rebaz Sharifi, a commander with the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), one of several Iranian Kurdish separatist groups based in northern Iraq, in an interview on March 11. "We do not need, nor do we expect, people to take to the streets," he said, referring to comments made by Trump on Feb. 28 when he urged Iranians as the bombing operation began to "take over your government. It will be yours to take." Israel's leader has made similar comments.
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USA TODAY interviewed Sharifi at a PAK base north of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The base resembled more a barracks than an operational military facility. It is built along one bank of the Great Zab river that meanders through northeastern Iraq. Some identifying details about the facility are being withheld at the request of Kurdish military commanders.
Iran's drones: cheap, fast, deadly
Since the outbreak of the war, Iran and Iran-aligned militias in Iraq have repeatedly fired drones and missiles at bases like this one, as well as at the U.S. Consulate in Erbil and the the headquarters of the U.S.-led Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State militant group at Erbil International Airport. Many get intercepted by air defense systems.
But not all.
Shortly before a USA TODAY reporter arrived at the PAK base an Iranian drone had fallen while encircling agricultural fields. It had not exploded. Nearby, fighters showed off the impact of drones that had. They explained how the attacks had taken place with two types of Iranian-made "Shahed" drones. They are cheap to produce, fast, known as "kamikaze" drones because they are not designed to come back − and hard to stop.
During a USA TODAY visit on March 12 to a separate Kurdish military base associated with the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KPIK), a reporter was abruptly ordered by the group's commander to take cover because of the possibility of a drone attack. The KPIK base is nestled in a rocky mountainous landscape close to Iran's border. Its fighters wore camouflage gear that blended with a sand-colored backdrop; the base was only reachable by walking up a steep slope.
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At one point during the climb, about 20 Peshmerga fighters stood on either side of a narrow path while chanting slogans such as "Woman, Life, Freedom" and "Long live the resistance of Kurdistan."
The fighters − female and male − ranged in age from late teenagers to women and men in their fifties and sixties.
"Soon we'll be able to get back to Iran," said one fighter, who didn't want to provide his name.
Kurds: repression, shifting alliances, betrayals
The Kurds are the Middle East's fourth-largest ethnic group, with an estimated population of 36 to 45 million worldwide, accordingKurdish Institute of Paris, an independent cultural and research center. But they have no single country they call their own and are predominantly scattered across western Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia and Turkey.
For more than a century Kurds have endured repression, shifting alliances and repeated betrayals, including by Israel and the United States. They are routinely hunted by Iran and Turkey, which consider some Kurdish militias to be terrorist organizations. Some Kurdish groups have fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.
In the 1970s, the U.S. and Iran − at the time allies − armed Iraqi Kurdish rebels to weaken the Iraqi government in Baghdad. But when the shah of Iran secured a territorial concession from Iraq in 1975, he abruptly cut off support to theKurds with U.S. approval. Four years later, Iran's monarch was himself was overthrown in the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution. The pattern repeated itself in 1991 when the U.S. called on Kurdish Iraqis to rise up against Saddam Hussein. Uprisings followed. Washington declined to intervene as the regime violently suppressed them.
See how Middle Eastern countries are caught in the crossfire of the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran.Bahrain
Smoke rises in the sky after blasts were heard in Manama, Bahrain, Feb. 28, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Syria Syrian children stand on the wreckage of an Iranian rocket that was reportedly intercepted by Israeli forces in the southern countryside of Quneitra, near the Golan Heights, close to the town of Ghadir al-Bustan." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Iraq A plume of smoke rises near Erbil International Airport in Erbil on March 1, 2026. Loud explosions were heard early on March 1 near Erbil airport, which hosts US-led coalition troops in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, an AFP journalist said." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Iraq Members and officers from the Iraqi Interior Ministry's Explosives Directorate inspect the fuel tank of a rocket that landed in a rural village in the Siyahi area near the city of Hilla in the central Babil province on March 1, 2026. Iraq, which has recently regained a sense of stability but has long been a proxy battleground between the U.S. and Iran, warned that it did not want to be dragged into the war that started on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Qatar A prayer appealing to God for protection is projected on the dome of al-Hazm shopping mall in Doha on March 1, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Qatar Motorists drive past a plume of smoke rising from a reported Iranian strike in the industrial district of Doha on March 1, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Bahrain A building that was damaged by an Iranian drone attack, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Manama, Bahrain, March 1, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Saudi Arabia The empty terminal at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh is pictured on March 1, 2026. Global airlines cancelled flights across the Middle East after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Saturday, plunging the region into a new conflict. In Saudi Arabia, Iranian missiles targeting Riyadh's international airport and the Prince Sultan Airbase, which houses U.S. military personnel, were intercepted, a Gulf source briefed on the matter told AFP." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
United Arab Emirates A food delivery bike drive close to a plume of smoke rising from the Zayed Port following a reported Iranian strike in Abu Dhabi on March 1, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
United Arab Emirates An oil tanker is pictured offshore in Dubai on March 1, 2026. Attacks have damaged tankers, and many ship owners, oil majors and trading houses suspended crude oil, fuel and liquefied natural gas shipments via the Strait of Hormuz." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Oman Smoke billows from an oil tanker under U.S. sanctions, that was hit off Oman's Musandam peninsula, in this screen grab from a video obtained by Reuters on March 1, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Kuwait Smoke rises from a reported Iranian strike in the area where the U.S. Embassy is located in Kuwait City on March 2, 2026. Black smoke was seen rising from the U.S. embassy in Kuwait City on March 2 after the latest volley of Iranian strikes, an AFP correspondent saw," style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Saudi Arabia A satellite image shows efforts to control a fire as smoke rises in the Ras Tanura oil refinery in Saudi Arabia after a drone attack, amid the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, in Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia March 2, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Turkey People make their way after crossing from Iran into Turkey at the Kapikoy Border Gate in eastern Van province,Turkey, March 2, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
United Arab Emirates Delivery persons ride motorcycles along a road as a tall smoke plume billows following an explosion in the Fujairah industrial zone on March 3, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
United Arab Emirates Pieces of missiles and drones recovered after Iran's strikes are displayed during a press briefing by the UAE government held in Abu Dhabi on March 3, 2026. Iran stepped up its attacks on economic targets and US missions across the Middle East on March 3, as the US president warned it was "too late" for the Islamic republic to seek talks to escape the war. As drones and missiles crashed into oil facilities and U.S. embassies in the Gulf, Washington's ally Israel bombarded targets in Iran and pushed troops deeper into Lebanon to battle the Tehran-backed militia Hezbollah." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Lebanon Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut on March 3, 2026. The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for dozens of locations in Lebanon on March 3, including warning residents in two southern Beirut neighbourhoods to stay away from several buildings ahead of an imminent operation." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Lebanon Emergency personnel work at the site of an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, Lebanon, March 3, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Lebanon Rescuers gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Jamaa Islamiya offices in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Sidon on March 3, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
United Arab Emirates Tankers are seen off the coast of the Fujairah, as Iran vows to close the Strait of Hormuz, amid the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, March 3, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
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See how Middle Eastern countries are caught in the crossfire of thewar launched by the United States and Israel against Iran.BahrainSmoke rises in the sky after blasts were heard in Manama, Bahrain, Feb. 28, 2026.
"We have no friends but the mountains," is a well-wornKurdish proverb.
For now, it's not clear in particular if they have a friend in the U.S. president.
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Trump has given contradictory statements about backing Kurdish opposition groups as a proxy ground force in the war against Iran, including the possibility of supplying them with weapons and/or providing them with the air support they seek to launch an invasion. Kurds are one of Iran's largest ethnic minorities. There are an estimated 7 to 15 million Kurds inside Iran (around 8-17% of Iran's total population), according to London think tank Chatham House.
"I think it's wonderful they want to do that − I'd be all for it,"Trump said on March 5, responding to a reporter's question about Iranian Kurdish forces potentially launching an offensive into Iran from bases in Iraqi Kurdistan. Two days later, he reversed course, saying "The war is complicated enough without getting the Kurds involved."
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Arming the Kurds: what it means
The Peshmerga do not have a single universally agreed-upon number of fighters because the forces are divided between different political groups and command structures.British government estimatesput the total personnel number at around 150,000 although it's not clear how many of those are active soldiers.
Seth Frantzman is a veteran Israel-based journalist and analyst of the Middle East who is an adjunct fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank. He has covered Kurdish issues for more than a decade. He said Kurdish Iranian opposition groups' fighters have primarily small arms, consisting of AK-47 rifles.
He said it's unclear what kind of arms and logistics could be stood up quickly even if the U.S. military decided to back them because it takes time to train and put arms in their hands and U.S. soldiers may need to be involved in an "advise and assist" capacity. When the U.S. supported and armed the Syrian Defense Forces, a Kurdish-led group in Syria, to defeat the Islamic State militant group, he said, it took several years before that defeat materialized.
On March 13, a U.S. official told USA TODAY that the U.S. is strengthening its presence in the Middle East by sending 2,500 additional Marines amid an increase in Iranian attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. In a recent interview withNBC News, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran is prepared for U.S. ground troops. "We are waiting for them," Araghchi said, adding that "we are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a big disaster for them."
He did not mention Iranian Kurdish fighters.
Trump's confusing Kurdish messaging
Despite the mixed messages Kurdish fighters have received from the Trump administration, a new coalition of exiled Iranian Kurdish groups including PAK have joined forces to take advantage of the shifting dynamics around Iran and the regime's perceived frailty in the lead up to and following the military action on Iran from Israel and the U.S.
Khalid Azizi, a spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), which is part of this coalition, traveled to Washington last week to try to secure meetings with key Trump administration officials, shore up backing for Kurds and, ideally, procure U.S. military drones to defend themselves against Iran.
"We have received messages from Trump that he supports the Kurdish case, the Kurdish people, that he's in favor of establishing democracy in Iran, that he wants regime change, or some sort of change inside Iran to make it possible for people there to have it better. Things like that," said Azizi, who himself was injured in 2018 when an Iranian missile struck the PDKI's headquarters in Koya, southeast of Erbil.
Azizi said the coalition has "some level of contacts" with U.S. officials "underground," a term he didn't elaborate on. He said he did not have information about reports that said theCIA is working to arm Kurdish forceswith the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran. He noted that Kurdish groups have been in contact with U.S. officials for many years, but the ongoing war in Iran has injected uncertainty into the relationship.
The CIA did not return a request for comment.
"President Trump has a lot of reservation," Azizi said. "We haven't received any clear message." It wasn't clear if Azizi was able to meet with Trump administration officials while in Washington.
Sharifi, the PAK military commander, said Peshmerga fighters like him have "distanced ourselves" from many aspects of regular life "for the sake of achieving the rights of our people and the freedom of our nation."
He said the Kurds do not need a popular uprising in Iran. What they need, he said, is for the U.S. and Israel to "open a corridor for us so that we can enter Iranian territory. When that happens, they will see what we are capable of."
He said Kurds have put their trust in Trump, who they see as a "strong and capable man who knows well how to manage war in the Middle East." He said no previous U.S. president could have done what he has done so far.
Younes Mohammad reported from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Kim Hjelmgaard is an investigative journalist covering global stories for USA TODAY, from living rooms to conflict zones. He is based in London.
Contributing: Cybele Mayes-Osterman from Washington.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Kurdish fighters want Trump's help for ground war with Iran
