ERBIL, Kurdistan region of Iraq – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the intelligence ministry said a joint operation thwarted what they described as a planned incursion by “separatist terrorist groups” aimed at entering the country’s western borders with alleged support from Washington and Tel Aviv. 

The statement comes after reports emerged on Tuesday indicating that Washington will depend on an armed Kurdish invasion into western Iran to divert Iranian military personnel. The reports have been staunchly rejected by Erbil and Washington. 

Neither forces belonging to Iranian Kurdish opposition parties, nor people from Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, have crossed borders into Iran for a ground offensive, multiple sources confirmed to The New Region on Thursday.

“The separatist terrorist groups intended to enter the country's western borders with the support of the American Zionist enemy and by abusing the war conditions and carry out terrorist attacks with separatist goals in urban and border areas,” read a statement from the Iranian intelligence ministry. 

It added that in a joint operation, the IRGC and the ministry destroyed a “significant part of the positions and facilities of these mercenaries,” stressing that “heavy losses were inflicted on them.”

The developments come as regional tensions rise, with the US and Israel launching a large-scale military offensive across Iran on Saturday morning, and Tehran responding with ballistic missiles and drones targeting US bases across the region.

Since the war broke out, bases of Kurdish opposition groups in the Kurdistan Region have come under attack. 

An Iranian strike on Wednesday targeted a base of the exiled Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) in Erbil’s Koya district, killing at least one person and injuring three. 

Earlier in February, Kurdish opposition groups from Rojhelat formed a joint coalition aimed at toppling the Iranian government, with the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan announcing on Wednesday it had joined the alliance, bringing the total number of groups in the coalition to six.

The Kurdish-majority region of western Iran holds significant political and geographic sensitivity, long marked by resistance to Tehran’s policies as residents face decades of discrimination, heavy security crackdowns, economic underdevelopment, and limited job opportunities.

Kurds in Iran are also among the communities with organized opposition groups and movements, with most having armed Peshmerga forces that have resisted Tehran for more than four decades.

The dissident parties, based in the Kurdistan Region, have long been military targets for Iran, drawing concerns from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over the Region’s security.