according to a local official quoted by state media, a dark twist as Washington encourages Iranian Kurdish forces across the border in Iraq to launch a ground operation into Iran.

 The head of the Kurdistan Provincial Emergency Department on Friday said at least 969 people were injured in the attacks. Twenty-seven people are currently hospitalised in standard wards, while five are in intensive care units, the official, who remained unnamed, added.

 Kurds are an Indigenous ethnic minority of the Mesopotamian region, spread mainly across southeastern Turkiye, northeastern Syria, the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, northwestern Iran and southwestern Armenia, sharing a distinct language and culture but lacking a state of their own. They are also estimated to make up nearly 10 percent of Iran’s population, though no official figure exists.

 The US-Israeli attacks on Iran’s Kurdistan province come amid speculation that President Donald Trump has been in direct talks with Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish groups, and that Washington aims to use them militarily on the ground to help trigger a popular uprising. However, Trump last week said he did not want the Kurds to launch an offensive against Iran, saying the US did not want to “make the war any more complex than it already is”.

 Iranian Kurdish opposition movements, many of which maintain close relations with Iraqi Kurdish factions, have long resisted Tehran while operating from bases in northern Iraq and areas along the Iran-Iraq frontier. Collectively, these groups are estimated to field several thousand fighters. Last week, Iranian forces launched an operation against Kurdish groups in their semi-autonomous region of neighbouring Iraq. The Iraqi Kurdish regional government has denied involvement in any plans to arm Kurdish groups and send them into Iran. (Aljazeera)