War Torn Families: Lifelines Across the Iran-Iraq Border

It's March 30, I'm Corey with the story, this is Global News, driven by AI and built

for a global audience.

Along the Iran-Iraq border in Kurdish areas, families are torn apart by the ongoing

war.

Exiles like nurses who fled Iran's protests now live in self-imposed isolation in Iraq,

desperate for anywhere from loved ones back home.

Telecom lines are down from environments and tightened security, leaving folks relying

on risky border signals for short calls.

Cousins sneak close to the frontier with dual phones.

One Iraqi sim for WhatsApp, another Iranian to bridge the gap, but these chats last just

a minute.

Or, too, amidstatic and wind, Iranian forces have ramped up patrols, installed cameras,

and boosted troops to block Kurdish militants, halting all cross-border trade and movement,

that once kept communities linked.

People like law students in Iraq, misrelatives in Iranian cities such as Sakez, unable

to gather for holidays or share meals during Ramadan.

Smugglers known as coal bars, who haul goods over treacherous mountains to feed their families,

sit idle with their meals, shot at or beaten if spotted, their livelihoods frozen since

the fighting escalated.

Activist tracking rights abuses report shootings at anyone nearing the border, arrests for

using virtual private networks and security forces taking.

Over schools and gems, after airstrikes hit their bases.

Following news out of Iran, slows to a trickle as checkpoints multiply and cell towers

get targeted.

For guys like Yasser Fatahi and Suley Mania, days blurring to worry, phones checked endlessly

for that faint connection.

In this shadow frontier, simple voices across the line become lifelines, holding out hope

amid the chaos.