Degala, Iraq — A rusted metal gate and a wind-torn flag mark the entrance 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 dressed in camo fatigues, scarf and running shoes, Ali Mahmoud Awara was nervous about being there, given the war next door in Iran.
“All of our bases have been targeted by the Iranians,” he said.
The armed group Awara belongs to, which is also known as PAK, is one of a handful that operate out of Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region.
Their ultimate goal is greater autonomy for the millions of ethnic Kurds who are spread across the region without a homeland of their own.
They also yearn for the demise of the Iranian regime, which has long suppressed the rights, language and culture of the Kurdish minority.
As a result, 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 certainly 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 more than to return home to topple the Islamic regime he despises. He longs for it “with my heart and my body,” he said.
Iran targets Kurdish bases
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been trying to prevent Kurds like Awara from crossing the border from Iraq to open a new front in 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 10-year veteran of the group, Kawan Rashidi, was killed, and three others were injured. Yazdanpanah was not in his office at 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.
Because of 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.
Should Kurdish fighters join the war?
Kurdish fighters interviewed by Global News were confident they were prepared to help take on Iranian forces.
The question is whether 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 join the war, he had told them it was already “complicated enough.”
Either way, even as Kurdish leaders sit on the fence about whether to get 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. may be trying to clear a path for a Kurdish uprising.
And with Trump demanding Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” but saying he is 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 would divide Iran along multiple ethnic lines.
Also, Iraq, which was at war with Iran from 1980 to 1988 and is still emerging from the devastation of ISIS, is reluctant to get drawn into another conflict.
Already facing attacks on its U.S. assets, hotels and Kurdish bases, Iraq’s northern region could face worse, were it to become a staging ground, and Iran has threatened as much.
And Kurdish groups are wary of the U.S., which has a record of making use of them when they are needed to advance American interests and then abandoning them.
“That history makes the Kurdish groups cautious,” said Yerevan Saeed, director of the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace at American University.
“They are reportedly looking for political assurances from the Trump administration before fully committing,” Saeed told the Atlantic Council.
Different wars, same enemy
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 due to fears the party office would 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 decide 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 in a position to pose a threat to the Kurds. “I think Iran is very weak,” Sanani said.
The Kurdish struggle against Iran and the U.S.-Israeli war are different conflicts with a common enemy, said a senior member of another group, the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran.
“The reality is, this is a U.S. and Israeli war,” Hassan Sharafi said.
But even though his organization had refrained from crossing the border to join the fight, its facilities had nonetheless been attacked six times in the past ten days, he said.
The interview took place after Global News was initially told to leave the party office due to a possible drone attack.
'We are waiting'
On Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran was ending attacks on neighbouring countries and was instead calling for diplomacy.
But when Awara visited his base later that same day, he told reporters to evacuate due to a missile warning. Explosions were later audible, although far from the site.
That night, another Kurdish base was attacked in Sulaymaniah, as well as 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 will have grave consequences.”
Far 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 continue.
Whether Awara and his colleagues will get the chance to take on Iran’s regime is a decision for his leaders, he said.
“We are ready for fighting,” he said. “The Kurdish people need freedom.”
They just need their marching orders first.
“We are waiting.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
Where is a strong Iraqi warlord leader when you need him?
Oh yeah. That guy…