DUBAI/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump encouraged Iranian Kurdish forces in Iraq to launch attacks against Iran as the Middle East conflict widened, with Azerbaijan warning it would retaliate for being targeted by Iranian missiles. Israel on Friday said it had started a “broad-scale” wave of attacks against infrastructure targets in Tehran, as Gulf cities came under renewed bombardment by Iran. The seven-day war has now seen Iran target Israel, the Gulf states, Cyprus, Turkiye and Azerbaijan, and spread to the Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka where a US submarine sank an Iranian naval ship.

US President Donald Trump has spoken to at least three Kurdish groups in Iran and Iraq in recent days.

Iran has warned ‘separatist groups’ against joining the widening conflict in the Middle East and launched strikes against Iraq-based Kurds. Could the involvement of these groups…