Erbil, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shot and killed a Kurdish shepherd in Kermanshah province on Tuesday, according to the Oslo-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.
Hengaw said Naib Karimi, 25, was shot by the IRGC while grazing his flock in the mountains of Salas-e Babajani County in Kermanshah province in Iran’s Kurdish region (Rojhelat).
Local media published notices of Karimi’s death and identified him as a resident of Bani Nar village but did not provide details about the circumstances of his death or why security forces opened fire on him..
The incident comes a week after Iranian security forces killed a Kurdish border porter (Kolbar in Kurdish) in the same area. Mohammad Sediq Avali, 28, was shot dead on September 23 in the Sheikh Saleh border area of Salas-e Babajani County, according to Hengaw. He was married and the father of two children.
“They are killing us one by one,” one local from the area commented on the announcement of Karamis’s death on Instagram.
“A family spends 20 years raising a child with much difficulty, and then they [IRGC] kills him with one bullet,” another local commented.
Hengaw said at least 13 Kurdish Kolbars have been killed by Iranian forces since the beginning of 2026, while 15 were killed last year. Rudaw previously reported the group's figures.
The deaths come amid renewed international scrutiny of Iran’s treatment of Kurdish Kolbars and Baloch Sukhtbars. UN experts on September 23 called on Iranian authorities to stop using lethal force against the border couriers and called for independent investigations into deaths caused by security forces.
“The Kurdish border couriers known as kolbars and Baloch fuel carriers known as sukhtbars are among the most economically marginalized people in Iran,” the UN experts said. “They must not pay for that poverty with their lives.”
Kolbars, most of whom are Kurds from Iran’s western border regions, carry goods across mountainous crossings into Iraq and Turkey to earn income. The work exposes them to difficult terrain and the risk of being shot by Iranian security forces.
