ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A young Kurdish kolbar was killed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a border area of Kermanshah province on Thursday, according to a news agency.
Soheil Ferdowsi, 18, was shot by IRGC forces while carrying goods near the border town of Paveh, Kurdistan Press Agency (Kurdpa) reported, citing an unnamed "well-informed" source.
Ferdowsi died at the scene.
Border porters, known locally as kolbars, carry untaxed goods - including coffee, fabric, tea, and even auto parts - on foot across the mountainous and heavily militarized Iran-Iraq border, earning minimal wages despite significant risks.
The trade employs a majority-Kurdish workforce of poor and low-income border residents on the Iranian side, a limited number of whom have been issued work cards by the government.
Rights groups have repeatedly documented cases of Iranian border forces opening fire on unarmed kolbars, resulting in deaths and injuries each year, and have called on Tehran to end the use of lethal force against border porters.
Rasul Qalandari, 21, a father of two children aged three years and five months, was killed by Iranian border guards in West Azerbaijan province on Wednesday, the Hengaw Human Rights Organization reported.
