(today)
The First Area Command of the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces on Tuesday said the headquarters of the 7th Division came under two rocket attacks within an hour, with no casualties or material losses.
In a statement, the command indicated that the first strike occurred at 01:50 a.m., when five rockets hit the headquarters, followed by a second attack at 02:50 a.m., when another rocket landed near the site within the boundaries of Kalkin village.
(March 23, 2026)
Sources within the Erbil government confirm to EL PAÍS that they have asked the Kurdish-Iranian militias not to launch an attack from Iraqi-Kurdish soil, fearing reprisals from a neighboring country that is far stronger and more militarily capable. “It’s not our war,” says a high-ranking official, echoing the regional mantra that resonates in the Gulf capitals, where Iranian fire is bombarding American targets and has wreaked havoc on the global supply of hydrocarbons, on which 90% of Iraqi exports depend.
“The Kurdistan Regional Government and the political parties within it are not part of any campaign to expand the war and tensions in the region,” a government spokesperson, Peshawa Hawramani, said in a statement. He added that reports of Iraqi KRG involvement in a plan to arm Kurdish forces are being spread “deliberately and maliciously.”
“On the contrary, we call for peace and stability in the region,” Hawramani added. “We strongly condemn the cowardly attacks targeting the Kurdistan Region, and we call on the federal government and the international community to intervene to stop these assaults and protect our land, our people, and our region.”
(March 4, 2026)
Washington and Erbil, Iraq —
The CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran, multiple people familiar with the plan told CNN.
The Trump administration has been in active discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish leaders in Iraq about providing them with military support, the sources said.
(March 4, 2026)
Pro-American, Iranian Kurdish forces based in Iraq are preparing armed units that could enter Iran, creating a potential new front in an already expanding conflict, according to Iraqi officials and senior members of Iranian Kurdish groups.
The C.I.A. has previously given small arms to the Iranian Kurdish forces as part of a covert program to destabilize Iran, an effort that began before the current war, according to people familiar with the effort.
(March 3, 2026)
Erbil (IraqiNews.com) — US President Donald Trump talked by phone with top Iraqi Kurdish politicians on Sunday to discuss the current US-Israeli military operation against Iran and possible future actions, according to Axios.
According to sources acquainted with the discussions, the talks included Masoud Barzani, chairman of the Masoud Barzani Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and Bafel Talabani, leader of the Bafel Talabani Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Current turmoil in both Iraq and Syria led the discussion in a meeting on Wednesday between Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani and French Consul General in Erbil Olivier Decottignies.
“Their mistreatment and harming them is increasing every day. The Asayish forces of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) are threatening the refugees of the North and tell them: ‘Do not visit the HDP representation.’ and every now and then tell them: ‘Do not take part in events that are related to the North,” the statement continued.
June 1992: Iraqi National Congress Formed
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), headed by Masud Barzani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), headed by Jalal Talabani, meet in Vienna along with nearly 200 delegates from dozens of Iraqi opposition groups to form an umbrella organization for Iraqi dissident groups. The event is organized by the Rendon Group, which has been contracted by the CIA to organize the wide spectrum of Iraqi dissidents into a unified movement against Saddam Hussein. Rendon names the group the “Iraqi National Congress” (INC). The CIA pays the Rendon Group $326,000 per month for the work, funneled to the company and the INC through various front organizations.
(26. Februar 2014) A source from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan has told BasNews that Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani has made a secret agreement with his Turkish counterpart on Kurdish oil exports.
According to the PUK source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Kurdish PM Barzani secretly reached an agreement on Kurdish oil exports that will be implemented if Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki remains opposed to Kurdish oil exports to Turkey.
(19. Juni) Peshmerga forces affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani secured most of the Iraqi-Syrian border areas of the province of Mosul on June 10 after the fall of the city to ISIS.
Importantly, they have secured most areas surrounding the previously Iraqi-controlled Rabia-Yaroubia border crossing. The Yaroubia crossing was captured by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), in October 2013 in cooperation with the Iraqi government to circumvent the Turkish and KDP border closures between Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Iraq has dismissed claims that its leader, Masoud Barzani, is planning to take control of Mosul with the help of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Sunni Arabs.
The KDP released a statement on its website directly rejecting the claims of Cemil Bay?k, a senior member of the Kurdistan Workers‘ Party (PKK).
(19. Juni) Peshmerga forces affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani secured most of the Iraqi-Syrian border areas of the province of Mosul on June 10 after the fall of the city to ISIS. (…) Mela Ali said that the YPG is in more need of cooperation with the peshmerga due to the border crossings controlled by Barzani’s forces. “Rabia is controlled by the peshmerga and Fish Khabur is controlled by the peshmerga. They have to [cooperate] because the peshmergas are in [control of] this area.”
At least 190 people were killed and injured in a series of bomb attacks in Kirkuk on Wednesday, health officials told Rudaw.
One of the attacks targeted the office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region.