Armed Kurdish separatist groups tried to cross into Iran from Iraq in recent days, stoking fears that the country’s spiraling unrest has attracted dangerous foreign militants who could destabilize the wider region, according to reports.

Iranian officials said the attempted breach came amid a sweeping crackdown on nationwide protests against the country’s regime, with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) leading the response, Reuters reported.

The Tasnim News Agency also reported armed militia groups operating in Iraq crossed the border in western and northwestern Iran, according to Middle East Monitor.

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Reuters had reported that three sources, including a senior Iranian official, said Turkey’s intelligence agency, known as MIT, warned the IRGC that Kurdish fighters were trying to cross the Iran-Iraq border.

The Iranian official said clashes also broke out after the attempt to cross and accused the fighters of trying to exploit the unrest and create further instability.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, around 30 million Kurds live in the Middle East, mainly in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

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Turkey has designated Kurdish militant groups in northern Iraq as terrorist organizations and has carried out cross-border military operations against them. The Turkish military has also targeted PKK bases in Iraq.

In 2025, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) said it would disarm and end its decades-long battle against Turkey.

Reuters said MIT and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s office did not comment on the Iran crossing, though it warned that any interference in Iran would inflame regional crises.

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Iranian authorities alleged the fighters were dispatched from Iraq and Turkey and said the Iranian regime has asked both governments to stop any transfer of fighters or weapons into Iran.

The number of deaths during the crackdown on protesters rose to at least 2,571 on Wednesday, accordin g to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.

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President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had been told the killings had halted, and he believes there is no plan for large-scale executions. 

Asked who told him, Trump said they were “very important sources on the other side.”

Iran closed its airspace to most flights Wednesday, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, with the closure lasting a little more than two hours.

Airspace restrictions come amid fears that US President Donald Trump could attack Iran.

Iran temporarily closed its airspace to most flights amid attack threats by United States President Donald Trump, according to the US aviation authority.

Most flights were prohibited from Iranian airspace between 1:45am and 4:00am local time (22:15 to 00:30 GMT) and again from 4:44 am to 7am (01:14 to 03:30 GMT) on Thursday, according to the notices posted by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The restrictions applied to all commercial flights without “prior approval” from Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO), according to the notices.

FlightRadar, an online flight tracking service, showed just three aircraft over Iran as of 6:05am local time, with dozens of planes flying around the country’s borders. Iran’s airspace reopened at about 7am local time.

The FAA and CAO did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The airspace restrictions come amid threats by US President Donald Trump to attack Iran following Tehran’s deadly crackdown on antigovernment protests in the country.

The US and the United Kingdom on Wednesday withdrew a number of military personnel from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned that it would target US forces in the Middle East region if Trump launched an attack.

A number of countries have also issued advisories to their citizens in the region amid fears of escalation.

Trump appeared to lower his rhetoric towards Tehran later on Wednesday, saying he had received assurances from “important sources” that the killings of protesters in Iran had stopped.

Safe Airspace, a website run by the aviation safety organisation OpsGroup, said the airspace closures could signal “further security or military activity” and warned of the “risk of missile launches or heightened air defence, increasing the risk of misidentification of civil traffic”.

In 2020, Iran’s air defences shot down a Ukraine International Airlines flight shortly after it took off in Tehran, killing all 176 people on board.

A 2021 report by Iran’s CAO concluded that the missile battery’s operator had misidentified the Ukrainian aircraft as a “hostile object”, and that officials had not properly evaluated the risks to commercial planes amid tensions with the US.