Mountains in Iranian Kurdistan on fire after IRGC shelling

Some protected areas of the Kosalan Mountain in Sarvabad, Kurdistan province, have caught fire after continuous IRGC shelling of the area.

Despite all the efforts of the locals to put out the fire, it has not yet been brought under control as the fire spread and the IRGC forces prevented the volunteering people from responding to the fire.

Simultaneously with the shelling of the area, which started on the morning of 16 August, the IRGC forces summoned the heads of several villages on the foothills of Kosalan Mountain and asked them to evacuate the villagers from the heights of the area.

A source that spoke to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said the IRGC shelling targeted the areas near the Razab village of Sarvabad and “lasted for several hours”.

According to this source, at the same time as the artillery fire, the village heads of Zhivar, Bolbar, Selin, Abbasabad, and Vargah Vir were summoned to the headquarters of the IRGC in Sarvabad.

“The officers have told the village heads that in the next few days, animal breeders and beekeepers must evacuate the heights of the Kosalan Mountain”, the source said, adding that the officers warned that “those who do not leave the region will be responsible for their own lives”.

The IRGC shelling comes after it announced holding a military exercise in Kosalan Mountain in recent days.

This is even though these mountainous areas have been registered as protected areas under the management of the Environmental Protection Agency per enactment No. 303 issued by the Environmental Protection Council (State Commission for Infrastructure) since 2009.

Kurdish environmental activists have repeatedly warned that the mountainous areas of Shaho and Kosalan are protected areas and that any military maneuver in these areas is against the law.

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