According to reports received by AvaToday, on the evening of Thursday, 8 January 2026, following the nationwide Kurdistan general strike, residents of the city of Abdanan took to the streets and chanted slogans against the terrorist regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iranian military forces opened direct fire on the crowd in an attempt to disperse the protesters. Initial reports indicate that a 16-year-old child was killed as a result of the shooting.
According to statements from a reliable source, Alireza Seidi, a resident of Abdanan in Ilam Province, Iranian Kurdistan, was killed on Thursday evening, 8 January, after being directly shot by Iran’s military–terrorist forces.
Unfortunately, due to the complete internet shutdown imposed across Iran following the major Kurdistan strike on 8 January, AvaToday has so far been unable to obtain accurate figures regarding the number of those killed.
However, based on updated data from human rights organizations, the death toll from the protests prior to the major Kurdistan strike has reached 34 people, including 29 protesting citizens and five children and adolescents under the age of 18. Of this total, 30 of the victims were Kurdish.
Additionally, according to HRANA, in its latest assessment, at least 60 further arrests were recorded on that day, bringing the total number of detainees over a 12-day period to more than 2,277. HRANA reported that among those detained were at least 166 individuals under the age of 18 and 48 university students. During the same period, 45 cases of so-called “forced confessions” were broadcast by state media.
