Kurdistan Human Rights Network

Baneh County’s governor’s office banned all civilian access to the mountainous areas surrounding the city of Baneh on 22 March, warning in a statement that those who ignore the directive would be responsible for risks to their lives, local sources told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).

Meanwhile, the Iranian military deployed heavy artillery on the outskirts of Surin village and other areas.

A source said around 50 buses carrying hundreds of commando forces from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), along with a follow-up military convoy, were deployed in rural mountainous areas near the border with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).

The IRGC commandos were thought to have been transferred from Qazvin, and locals believed they were deployed in Baneh County’s mountainous border areas to potentially confront Iranian Kurdish armed opposition groups.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned residents living along the border with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) not to approach the border frontier zones, saying that anyone found at the border could be shot without prior warning, according to residents in the border towns of Paveh, Marivan, Baneh and Sardasht.

Local sources told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) between 14 and 18 March that IRGC and Iranian border guard units had recently withdrawn from their established military bases along the border. They were later redeployed in local mosques and at sites across the mountainous terrain surrounding the towns.

These developments coincide with Iran’s decision to reopen several border crossings with the KRI, after they had been closed since 28 February.

The Iranian military deployed the NOPO special forces in Orumiyeh Central Prison after a ward within the prison was evacuated following airstrikes on military and security facilities in the city of Orumiyeh and its surrounding areas, families of prisoners told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) on 16 March.

That prison ward evacuated in recent days is known as the “Talash Ward,” the sources said.

The evacuated ward used to house prisoners employed to work at the facility, as well as other prisoners on temporary release with required return to the jail.

Families of prisoners there have expressed growing concern over this new development, highlighting that the increased military presence at the jail  has spread fear among the prisoners.

According to these accounts,  inmates have told their families that their lives may be at serious risk, fearing that the Iranian military may use the prisoners as human shields.

In recent days, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces have established checkpoints at all entry points to Kamyaran from the cities of Ravansar, Sarvabad, Kermanshah and Sanandaj. In addition to searching vehicles, security forces are also inspecting the mobile phones of citizens.

At the same time, the IRGC has evacuated several of its bases in the Shaho Mountain and relocated their personnel to mosques in villages on the mountain’s foothills.

Residents of these villages have protested against the deployment of military forces inside the mosques, stating that the presence of military personnel there puts the lives of civilians at risk.

At least five Kurdish civilians, Nabi Gholami, Aboubakr Alizadeh, Jamal Ghaderi, Bahram Ghasri and Fardin Darbouei, were killed during US and Israeli air strikes on military centres in Kamyaran, Naqadeh, Tehran, Sanandaj and Marivan.

Alizadeh, a 63-year-old man from Naqadeh, was seriously wounded by shrapnel on 2 March during the bombing of a military centre in the city. He later died from his injuries in hospital on 6 March.

Gholami, a worker from Kamyaran, was killed on 1 March during the bombing of Police Station No. 15 in the city.

Three other civilians were also killed in the attacks: Darbouei in Marivan, Ghasri in Sanandaj, and Jamal Ghaderi, who comes from Sarvabad, was killed during the bombing of a military centre in Tehran by US and Israeli aircraft.

In the 10 days since the outbreak of the war, at least 23 Kurdish civilians, including three children, have been killed in the bombardments.

On 11 March, the Zirgawez camp, belonging to the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, was targeted in a drone attack by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxy forces in Iraq. This marked the latest in a series of attacks since the start of the US–Israel war with Iran.

During the attack, a Peshmerga fighter, Omid Veysi from Ravansar, was killed.

Since the outbreak of the war, three Peshmerga fighters from the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) have been killed. In addition, a Peshmerga member from the Kurdistan Region was killed during an attack on Erbil Airport.