US media outlet retracts report on alleged Kurdish ground offensive in northwestern Iran

ISTANBUL

Axios, a US-based media outlet, retracted its report that claimed that opposition Kurdish groups launched a ground offensive in northwestern Iran.

Citing a US official, Barak Ravid, a reporter for Axios, had reported that Kurdish groups had launched a ground offensive in northwestern Iran. However, he later deleted the post from the US-based social company X and retracted the report, saying "there are conflicting reports" on the matter.

"There are conflicting reports regarding what is currently happening in northwestern Iran near the border with Iraq. It is unclear whether a ground offensive by the Iranian-Kurdish militias has already begun or may be launched in the coming hours. A senior official in one of the Iranian-Kurdish factions denied to me that a ground offensive has started," he later wrote.

The groups in question consist of small Iranian outfits that maintain a presence under the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq.

Iranian media denied claims that Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based in Iraq had crossed the border to fight against Tehran.

Citing security officials, Tasnim News Agency, which is known to be close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported that no elements had entered Iranian territory from the KRG area of Iraq.

Israeli media reported that groups, including the terrorist organization PKK-affiliated group PJAK, had launched armed operations against Iranian forces along the Iran-Iraq border.

According to Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a phone call with Bafel Talabani, the head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Iraq, to discuss "terrorist activity" along the shared border and the need to strengthen security cooperation.