<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">More than a decade after he fled to sanctuary in northern Iraq, Iranian Kurdish activist Sirvan Hassan can't keep his eyes off news of the protests which have swept Iran over the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody last month.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the some 10,200 Iranian Kurds registered as refugees or asylum seekers in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, Hassan said they were all gripped by the "revolution" that started in Iran's northwestern region, where most of the country's estimated 10 million Kurds live, before spreading nationwide.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Currently - continuously - even if I am at work, I have my phone in my hands to check the news and see what's happened," said Hassan, 40, who was once a Kurdish peshmerga fighter and escaped Iran after he was briefly arrested about 14 years ago.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"They are waiting to see where the revolution will go, what will happen to the people. Will they be killed, will they succeed, or fail? Honestly, this has taken over our souls," said Hassan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The unrest buffeting Iran erupted nearly three weeks ago after the death of 22-year-old Amini, who was detained for wearing clothes deemed "inappropriate" by the Islamic Republic's strict morality police.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said this week that Amini's death "deeply broke my heart" but he gave his full backing to security forces confronting the unrest, in which rights groups say more than 150 people have died.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His comments could be the harbinger of a harsher crackdown on protesters, but Hassan said they would not back down.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We have been in previous protests but this time it's different. They have taken to the streets in ultimate unity. I hope, with our constancy, we get results," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iran Targets Kurdish Groups In Iraq</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While the protests have reached every one of Iran's 31 provinces, they have been most intense in the northwestern areas where most Kurds live. Iran has responded by striking Iranian Kurdish opposition groups inside Iraq.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on September 28 they had fired missiles and drones at militant targets. Authorities in Iraq said 14 people were killed, including an infant.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This is not the first time," Hassan said, adding that he feared further strikes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2018, eleven people were killed in an attack on the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDK-I), an armed opposition group fighting for greater autonomy for Iran’s Kurdish community.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The PDK-I is one of the handful of mostly left-leaning Iranian Kurdish opposition groups headquartered in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Khaled Abdullazade briefly served as a fighter in its ranks more than 20 years ago. He left after two years to complete his studies and now works as a software engineer, but says his situation is precarious.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Like Hassan, he fears returning to Iran or even entering an Iranian diplomatic mission in Iraq to renew his passport. "I would like to travel to other countries, but I can't because I don't have a passport," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those determined to leave need large sums of money and face dangerous journeys, said Jila Mostajer from the Iranian Kurdish rights group Hengaw. "The only path remaining for people to leave, to have a safe life, is illegally. And you know how hard that path is," Mostajer said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hengaw is monitoring the protests and gathering information on casualties and detentions. Among those arrested are relatives of Farhad Suleimanpoor, a former member of an opposition group and high school teacher living in the Iraqi Kurdish capital Erbil but originally from the same town as Amini.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I wish I could go back to Iran now, but I can't," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Asked whether he expected any relatives to flee and join him in Iraq, Suleimanpoor said he hoped they would stay. "We should persist and we should do anything we can against the Iranian government." Source: Reuters</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>