Iranian border forces targeted dozens of kolbars in the Nowsud border area of Kermanshah Province on 24 February, injuring at least 20 people. The forces used pellet guns without prior warning, according to eyewitnesses.
A kolbar who witnessed the incident spoke to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) and said: “The border guards targeted dozens of kolbars with pellet guns from a short distance without warning. As a result, at least 20 kolbars from the cities of Javanrud, Salas-e Babajani, Paveh and Dalahu in Kermanshah Province, as well as Sanandaj, Marivan and Sarvabad in Kurdistan Province, were injured by pellet gunshot wounds”.
Among the injured kolbars taken to medical centres in Nowsud and Paveh are Behnam Khosravi and Hussein Bahrami from Kalash village in Javanrud, Meysam Rostami from Paveh, Foad Feyzi from Hashmiz village in Sanandaj, Mobin Karami from Sanandaj, Yahya Nouri from Sarvabad, Milad Ruostaei from the village of Cham Zereshk in Salas-e Babajani, Meysam Amini, Arman Rahmani and Mahmoud Karami from Salas-e Babajani, and Amir Rahmani and Farzad Rostami from Dalahu.
According to KHRN statistics, between 21 January and 21 February, three kolbars, Mansour Mohammadnezhad, Jabbar Veysi and Seyvn Sahihi, were killed by Iranian border guards in the border areas of Paveh in Kermanshah Province and Saqqez and Baneh in Kurdistan Province. Another kolbar, Houshyar Mahmoudi, was killed by Iraqi border guards in the Nowsud border area. Farid Roubina also died of frostbite in the Marivan border area of Kurdistan province.
