Trailers carrying U.S. military vehicles move towards the Iraqi Kurdistan region, withdrawing from Qasrak military base in northeastern Syria, in Qamishli, Syria, February 23, 2026. REUTERS/Orhan Qereman
The Trump administration is secretly arming Kurdish forces to ignite a popular uprising against Iran's regime, multiple sources revealed to CNN in an explosive new report.
The CIA has been actively coordinating with Iranian opposition groups and Iraqi Kurdish leaders to provide military backing for the destabilization effort. Kurdish armed groups, numbering in the thousands along the Iraq-Iran border, have publicly hinted at imminent military action and called for Iranian military defections.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump called Mustafa Hijri, leader of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan — one of the groups currently facing Iranian drone strikes, according to the report. A top Kurdish official confirmed that Iranian Kurdish forces will launch a ground operation in western Iran within days, expecting full U.S. and Israeli support.
Trump also phoned Iraqi Kurdish leaders over the weekend to coordinate military strategy and establish the supply lines necessary for weapons to flow through Iraqi Kurdistan into Iran. The operation aims to pin down Iranian security forces, allowing unarmed Iranian civilians to rise up without facing massacres like those in January.
“It may not be as simple as Americans convincing a proxy force to fight on its behalf,” a Trump administration official told CNN. “You have a group of people who are thinking about their own interests, and the question is whether getting them involved aligns with their interests.”
Israeli forces have intensified strikes on Iranian military outposts along the Iraq border to pave the way for Kurdish forces. However, US intelligence assessments suggest Iranian Kurds lack the resources for a successful uprising without extensive American and Israeli intervention.
Jen Gavito, a former top State Department official specializing in the Middle East under former President Joe Biden, told the outlet the move could backfire on the U.S.
“We are already facing a volatile security situation, on both sides of the border,” she said. “This has the potential to undermine Iraqi sovereignty and essentially empower armed militias with no accountability and with little understanding of what it may set in motion.”