WASHINGTON, March 5. /TASS/. A number of Kurdish factions are getting ready for a potential ground offensive against Iran in coordination with US and Israeli intelligence services, Axios reported on Wednesday.

"Militants from several Kurdish Iranian factions are preparing for a possible ground offensive against Iran's regime in the northwestern part of the country," the news website quoted US and Israeli officials as saying. "The Kurdish militias "are backed by the Mossad and the CIA," the officials added.

Those militias "have thousands of soldiers" along the border between Iraq and Iran, Axios said. According to it, the goal is to try to take over a Kurdish area inside Iran "to challenge the regime" and trigger "a broader uprising." "The war started with a kinetic phase by the US.and Israeli militaries, but as the war continues there will be other efforts by the Mossad and the CIA," an Israeli official told Axios.

Israel promised "the Kurdish Iranian factions not only military support but also political support for a Kurdish autonomous region in a future Iran" if the government of the Islamic Republic collapsed, Axios wrote.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a regular news briefing on Wednesday that US President Donald Trump had recently spoken with Kurdish leaders. Washington is not planning to use Kurdish militias to support an operation against the Iranian regime, she assured reporters.