Iran’s Kurds desperately seek shelter as Iran-Israel conflict rages on

Donya Seif Qazi

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - As the Israel-Iran conflict further escalates with global headlines centered on Tehran, the western Kurdish region (Rojhelat) has seen intense bombardment, forcing citizens to flee to the villages with Israeli strikes pounding military sites, locals told Rudaw English.

The war of words between Israel and Iran reached a boiling point on Friday when Israel carried out strikes against Tehran, prompting counterstrikes from the Islamic republic. The conflict quickly escalated, with Israel striking military bases, nuclear facilities, and killing several top commanders in Iran.

But while global headlines have largely focused on the capital Tehran and the nuclear facilities, the Kurdish region near the Iraqi border has sustained severe bombardment, with a large number of Iranian army and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bases, as well as missile launch facilities dotting the area - prime targets for Israel. 

The scale of the bombardment has pushed the region’s Kurdish residents to flee their hometowns, seeking shelter in rural villages, fearing for their safety as the conflict drags on. 

“The city bazaar and fuel stations have been extremely crowded over the past few days, as people rush to stock up on food and supplies before leaving town with tensions rising,”  Zana Rezayi*, a resident of the symbolic Kurdish city of Mahabad in West Azerbaijan province, told Rudaw English on Sunday. 

Another resident, Sherko Mohammadi*, explained that the Israeli strike instilled mass panic as people scrambled to leave the city. 

"Last night around 8 pm, we felt how close we were to an actual war when the defense systems activated and missiles were intercepted in the sky. Everyone in the neighborhood was panicking and running around,” he said on Sunday, noting that Iranian missiles en route to Israel have showered the skies since the conflict erupted. 

Israel has carried out devastating strikes on IRGC bases and missile launching facilities in the western Kurdish region, particularly in the Kermanshah and West Azerbaijan provinces.


Mohammadi noted that Israel struck two key sites near Mahabad early Saturday - the Darlak base and the Mahabad Petrochemical Complex, prompting “air defenses to be activated, and drones were visible in the sky.” 

The Darlak base is a police station located at a strategic crossroads connecting Mahabad, Urmia, and Miandoab. It also hosts a detachment of IRGC intelligence forces, according to locals, and the Mahabad Petrochemical Complex is a major industrial facility in the area.

Following clashes with Kurdish opposition groups in the 1980s, Darlak became a key point for asserting Iranian state control across the Kurdish region. 

Rudaw English reached out to employees at the Mahabad Petrochemical Complex, but they declined to share information, fearing reprisal from the authorities. 

“Authorities are preventing news from getting out, and for that reason, internet access has been severely restricted,” Rezayi said, speaking to Rudaw English through a VPN.

Security forces in Mahabad are reportedly conducting widespread searches of citizens’ mobile phones, arresting citizens possessing content that shows support for Israel, according to the Oslo-based Hengaw Human Rights Organization.

Iranian authorities have a history of limiting internet access during periods of unrest to suppress the spread of information.

Ahmed Babani*, from Mahabad, told Rudaw English that his family decided to head to their village as soon as the strikes pummelled the area. 

“When we heard the attacks, we realized it was better to leave the town as soon as possible. So our entire family, all the siblings with their families, returned to our village, which is about an hour away, to keep everyone safe from the attacks," he said. “Many people were getting food supplies to get out of town.” 

Residents reported that aerial defense systems have been active in the area “over the past four days” as Israeli attacks continue. 

“Now, as I am speaking to you, I can hear the air defense systems working and there is continuous aerial activity,” Babani said. 

According to Babani, the Daralak base “caught fire and was completely destroyed” after an Israeli strike targeted its munitions depot. 

Rudaw English spoke to Sarwar Dara*, a student in Kurdistan province’s Sanandaj, who noted a relative calm in the area in comparison to other Kurdish cities in the country’s west.

“The past three days in Sanandaj, we haven't heard anything except for the first day of attacks when a really loud sound was heard, which I believe was an IRGC base close to the city,” Dara said. 

“The situation in Mahabad is more intense, with significantly more aerial activity compared to Sanandaj,” noted Dara, who hails from Mahabad. 

Mahabad holds immense historical significance for the Kurdish people as a symbol of Kurdish nationalism. It gained prominence as the site where the first independent, yet short-lived, Kurdish state was established by Qazi Muhammad in 1946.

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the IRGC began establishing bases all over Rojhelat in an effort to quell Kurdish opposition groups and their activities and to assert state control over the area. 

The region was recently the zone of massive protests that spread across the country in September 2022, which stemmed from the killing of young Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini in custody of Iran’s so-called morality police. 

The protests triggered a brutal crackdown from Iranian authorities as the Kurdish region in the west became a real dilemma for the IRGC and its militias.

The Kurdish region has also suffered from chronic underdevelopment and neglect by the Islamic republic, with job opportunities low and state investment scarce. 

*Names have been changed to protect identities.