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Iranian Security Forces Kill More Cross-Border Couriers

Kulbars carry goods on their backs along the mountains of the Iran-Iraq border (Mehr)
Kulbars carry goods on their backs along the mountains of the Iran-Iraq border (Mehr)
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Iranian Security Forces Kill More Cross-Border Couriers

Kulbars carry goods on their backs along the mountains of the Iran-Iraq border (Mehr)
Kulbars carry goods on their backs along the mountains of the Iran-Iraq border (Mehr)

An alarming number of border couriers, primarily from Iran’s Kurdish and Baluchi minorities, have been killed in the first eight months of 2024, as Tehran uses unlawful and lethal force against those who transport goods and fuel across Iranian borders as their only means of survival, said the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on Thursday.

Headquartered in Washington, CHRI said at least 30 Kurdish border couriers, known as kulbars, were killed and 198 others injured by direct gunfire from Iranian government forces from January to August 2024.

Research undertaken by CHRI also found that six of the injured were children. One of them was 17-year-old Arian Mamandi from Sardasht, who was shot in the face by border guards and lost an eye.

Over the same eight-month period, at least 34 Baluchi fuel couriers, known as sukhtbars, were killed, and 39 others were injured by direct gunfire from government forces, CHRI’s research showed. One of those killed was 14-year-old Omran Baloch Zahi.

“The ongoing killings of border couriers are yet another example of the Islamic Republic’s use of disproportionate and lethal violence against Iran’s oppressed ethnic communities,” said Hadi Ghaemi, CHRI executive director.

“The Iranian government must immediately halt its unlawful use of lethal force against border couriers and instead focus on developing economic empowerment initiatives. This relentless violence against vulnerable populations must end,” Ghaemi said.

In July, Human Rights Watch and the Center for Supporters of Human Rights (CSHR) called on Iranian authorities under the new president to halt their use of excessive and lethal force at the Iran-Iraq border against predominantly Kurdish kulbars (border couriers), who come from marginalized communities.

“It is shameful that our youth have to engage in kulbari [transporting goods across border] for a piece of bread. We must establish a border that facilitates trade, not kulbari,” said Masoud Pezeshkian, the newly elected president of Iran, during his presidential campaign in Sanandaj in June.

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Zelenskyy Meets Top Military Leaders in Germany as US Announces Additional Aid to Ukraine 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint press conference with Netherlands' Prime Minister Dick Schoof in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday Sept. 2, 2024. (AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint press conference with Netherlands' Prime Minister Dick Schoof in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday Sept. 2, 2024. (AP)
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Zelenskyy Meets Top Military Leaders in Germany as US Announces Additional Aid to Ukraine 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint press conference with Netherlands' Prime Minister Dick Schoof in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday Sept. 2, 2024. (AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint press conference with Netherlands' Prime Minister Dick Schoof in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday Sept. 2, 2024. (AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Friday with top United States military leaders and more than 50 partner nations in Germany to press for more weapons support Friday as Washington announced it would provide another $250 million in security assistance to Kyiv.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the meeting of the leaders was taking place during a dynamic moment in Ukraine’s fight against Russia, as it conducts its first offensive operations of the war while facing a significant threat from Russian forces near a key hub in the Donbas.

So far the surprise assault inside Russia’s Kursk territory has not drawn away President Vladimir Putin’s focus from taking the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, which provides critical rail and supply links for the Ukrainian army. Losing Pokrovsk could put additional Ukrainian cities at risk.

While Kursk has put Russia on the defensive, “we know Putin’s malice runs deep,” Austin cautioned in prepared remarks to the media before the Ukraine Defense Contact Group met. Moscow is pressing on, especially around Pokrovsk, Austin said.

Recent deadly airstrikes by Russia have renewed Zelenskyy’s calls for the US to further loosen restrictions and obtain even greater Western capabilities to strike deeper inside Russia. However, the meeting Friday was expected to focus on resourcing more air defense and artillery supplies and shoring up gains on expanding Ukraine’s own defense industrial base, to put it on more solid footing as the final days of Joe Biden's US presidency wind down.

Zelenskyy said he would continue to press for the long-range strike capability. “Strong long-range decisions by partners are needed to bring the just peace we seek closer,” Zelenskyy said Friday on Telegram.

Western partner nations were working with Ukraine to source a substitute missile for its Soviet-era S-300 air defense systems, Austin said.

The US is also focused on resourcing a variety of air-to-ground missiles that the newly delivered F-16 fighter jets can carry, including the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, which could give Ukraine a longer-range cruise missile option, said Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, who spoke to reporters traveling with Austin.

No decisions on the munition have been made, LaPlante said, noting that policymakers would still have to decide whether to give Ukraine the longer-range capability.

“I would just put JASSM in that category, it’s something that is always being looked at,” LaPlante said. “Anything that’s an air-to-ground weapon is always being looked at.”

For the past two years, members of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group have met to resource Ukraine’s mammoth artillery and air defense needs, ranging from hundreds of millions of rounds of small arms ammunition to some of the West’s most sophisticated air defense systems, and now fighter jets.

The ask this month was more of the same — but different in that it was in person, and followed a similar in-person visit Thursday in Kyiv by Biden's Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer as Zelenskyy shores up US support before the administration changes.

Since 2022, the member nations together have provided about $106 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. The US has provided more than $56 billion of that total.

The German government said Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to meet Zelenskyy in Frankfurt on Friday afternoon.