According to reports received by Avatoday, protesters in Paveh County, in Kermanshah Province in Iranian Kurdistan, took to the streets on Friday, 9 January 2026, one day after the nationwide general strike across Kurdistan. The demonstrations were held in solidarity with protesters in other Kurdish cities, including Malekshahi, Ilam, Kermanshah, Abdanan, Kuhdasht, and Bakhtiari, where demonstrators chanted slogans against the Islamic Republic and were met with direct gunfire by the military-terrorist forces of the regime.
According to a independent journalist who contacted Avatoday’s news desk, citing eyewitnesses, security forces opened fire on Kurdish protesters with automatic gunfire from the very first hours of the demonstrations.
The journalist, whose identity cannot be disclosed for security reasons, quoted hospital sources as saying that at least 15 people were killed on the same day, and more than 50 wounded protesters were transferred to medical centers in Paveh. Most of the injured, however, were arrested by Iranian repression forces while still wounded and taken to undisclosed locations.
The independent journalist added: “Many of the injured have avoided going to hospitals and medical centers out of fear. As a result, they face serious and life-threatening conditions due to lack of access to proper medical treatment.”
The nationwide Kurdistan general strike, organized by Kurdish political parties in condemnation of the killing of Kurdish civilians—particularly in the provinces of Kermanshah, Ilam, and Lorestan—was planned and carried out on Thursday, 8 January 2026.
The strike was fully observed across all provinces of Iranian Kurdistan, including Urmia, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Ilam, Lorestan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, as well as in several other cities across Iran.
Previously, Avatoday reported that on the afternoon of Thursday, 8 January 2026, residents of Ilam and other cities in the province took to the streets, staging large-scale protests that continued through Friday and Saturday. From the earliest hours of the demonstrations, the military-terrorist forces of the Islamic Republic directly fired live ammunition at Kurdish protesters.
According to a reliable source working as medical staff in one of Ilam’s hospitals, over the course of two days more than 2,500 Kurdish civilians were killed by direct gunfire in various cities across Ilam Province in Iranian Kurdistan.
The source testified to having seen hundreds of bodies, many of whom had been killed by single gunshots to the head. Quoting participants in the protests, the source stated:
“Many of the wounded were executed on the streets with execution-style shots, or were killed inside ambulances and while being transported to hospitals by the IRGC and the Iranian army.”
Meanwhile, CBS News, citing its sources, reported that up to 20,000 people may have been killed during the massacre of protesters in Iran. The network added that information leaking out of Iran on Tuesday, 13 January 2026, suggests that the repression carried out by Islamic Republic authorities to end more than two weeks of widespread anti-government protests has likely been far more deadly than previously reported by activists abroad.
Report: Shahram Mirzaei
