Kurdish Forces 'Preparing' to Cross Into Iran as Trump Offers Support and Ground Phase of War Looms

Iranian Kurdish opposition groups in exile in northern Iraq told the BBC they have been preparing to cross the border into Iran but denied that any crossing has occurred yet, as President Trump publicly called on Kurdish forces to aid the U.S. military effort and offered American support in return. The development, reported simultaneously by Reuters and The Washington Post, suggests the administration is laying the groundwork for a ground component to Operation Epic Fury using proxy forces rather than large-scale American infantry deployments -- a strategy with deep historical echoes of both success and catastrophic failure. Kurdish peshmerga fighters are among the most experienced ground forces in the Middle East, but arming and deploying ethnic militias for regime change carries risks that the U.S. learned painfully in Iraq, Libya, and Syria. The possibility of a Kurdish ground incursion backed by Mossad and the CIA would represent a dramatic escalation of the conflict from an air campaign into a territorial war, with implications for Turkey, Iraq, and the broader regional balance of power.