‘I was hit in the face by pellets’: Iranians on border describe violence and more protests

At the border crossing from Iran into Iraqi Kurdistan, the stern face of Iran’s former supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, peers down at the trickle of Iranians leaving the territory.

Thick snowflakes confetti the lorries and pedestrians arriving at this remote mountain pass.

Metres away, just beyond the border post, an Iranian flag flutters in the snow.

Iran has shut down the internet and blocked phone calls into the country, but its borders are still open.

Inside the arrivals hall, we find dozens of men, women and children – many arriving to visit family on the Iraqi side of the border.

No-one we met said they were fleeing Iran because of the recent protests and government crackdown, but one man – who asked us to hide his identity – told us security forces had shot him during a protest in central Iran last Friday.

“I was hit in the face by seven pellet rounds,” he said, pointing out several weals and bruises on his face. “They struck above my eyelid, on my forehead, my cheek, my lip, under my ear and along my jaw. I had to use a razor blade to cut one of the pellets out.”

He told us he was too afraid of being arrested to get medical help, and that others injured during the government crackdown on protestors were also avoiding treatment, out of fear that security forces would arrive and arrest them.

“One of my friends told me he was hit by a pellet round,” he told us. “His son, who is around 12 or 13 years old, was struck twice in the leg by live ammunition. One of the bullets is lodged in the shin bone. They’re terrified of going to hospital to have it removed.”

Iran’s regime has treated these protests as an existential threat. Its crackdown seems to be working, and protesters are now thought to be largely staying at home, for fear of being shot or arrested. Rights groups say at least around 2,500 people have been killed.

But several people here told us that demonstrations had continued, at least into this week. The protester we spoke to said security forces had crushed protests in his own town last Friday, but that they had continued elsewhere.

“Demonstrations were still going on in Fardis and Malard, and some areas of Tehran,” he said. “My friends were there. We were constantly on the phone. On Tuesday night, the protests were still going on, but I haven’t had any updates since then.”

Iranians don’t need a visa to cross here, and officials say there is regular traffic back and forth.

Another man we spoke to at the border said he had been in Tehran on Wednesday, and seen protesters on the street. It’s not clear what form of protest that was, or how many were taking part.

The BBC has seen no hard evidence that street protests are still continuing. Very little footage at all is trickling out, and the reports we heard today are impossible to confirm. The BBC, along with other international media, is barred from reporting inside Iran.

The government’s repression largely seems to be working. But the economic problems that sparked this crisis haven’t gone away.

A teacher from a town close to the border told us she didn’t care who the leader was, she just wanted the economic situation to improve.

“We don’t want anything more than our basic rights,” she told me. “To own a house, to own a car, to have a normal life. My salary lasts 10 days, and I have to borrow money to cover the rest of the month. It’s very bad.”

I ask about US President Donald Trump, and his threat of military strikes if the regime kept killing protesters.

“We’re waiting to see what Trump does,” he told me. “In the meantime, civilians are getting killed.”

The force with which Iran’s leaders have crushed this protest signals their weakness. The regional proxy groups they once used as defences against attack have been weakened by Israel’s war with Hamas and Hezbollah, and by the fall of the former Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad.

And the Israeli-US war with Iran last year has depleted its military capabilities, and left it vulnerable to attack.

Hidden behind this mountainous border, Iran’s regime is re-imposing its control.

But hidden behind that repressive control is the growing fear of the Islamic Republic, unable to meet its people’s most basic demands: protection from foreign attacks, and prosperity at home.

Additional reporting by Samantha Granville and Maad Mohammed