Kurdish shepherd killed near Iran-Iraq border, livestock reportedly seized by IRGC

Hengaw – Sunday, July 12, 2026

A Kurdish shepherd from Iraq’s Kurdistan Region was shot dead by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) near the Iran-Iraq border, and hundreds of his livestock were seized.

According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Rebaz Sulaiman Saleh, 30, was killed in recent days near the Kheniran mountain area in the Sidakan district of Soran, Erbil province, in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. IRGC forces opened fire on Saleh after he approached the border to retrieve his livestock and later took away his body.

Saleh was grazing and tending his flock in the mountainous area under an official permit when he was shot. Several days after the incident, his body had not been returned to his family.

IRGC forces seized approximately 850 sheep and goats belonging to Saleh’s family and transported them into Iran.

The cross-border shooting of a civilian and the seizure of his family’s livestock violated international law and bilateral border agreements between Iran and Iraq.