Dubai: The toll in Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests has reached at least 5,002 people killed, activists said Friday, warning many more were feared dead as the most comprehensive internet blackout in the country’s history crossed the two-week mark.
The challenge in getting information out of Iran persists because of authorities cutting off access to the internet January 8, even as tensions rise between the United States and Iran as an American aircraft carrier group moves closer to the Middle East.
US President Donald Trump likened the carrier group to an ‘armada’ in comments to journalists late Thursday.
Analysts say a military buildup could give Trump the option to carry out strikes, though so far he’s avoided that despite repeated warnings to Tehran. Meanwhile, Iran’s top prosecutor denied a claim by Trump that his intervention so far had halted the execution of 800 prisoners detained in the demonstrations, calling his comments “completely false.”
“While President Trump now appears to have backtracked, likely under pressure from regional leaders and cognizant that airstrikes alone would be insufficient to implode the regime, military assets continue to be moved into the region, indicating kinetic action may still happen,” a New York-based think tank called the Soufan Centre said in an analysis Friday.
Death toll rises
The latest death toll was given by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which reported that 4,716 were demonstrators, 203 were government-affiliated, 43 were children, and 40 were civilians not taking part in the protests.
It added that more than 26,800 people had been detained in a widening arrest campaign by authorities.
The group’s figures have been accurate in previous unrest in Iran and rely on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths. That death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran’s government offered its first death toll Wednesday, saying 3,117 people were killed. It added that 2,427 of the dead in the demonstrations that began December 28 were civilians and security forces, with the rest being “terrorists.” In the past, Iran’s theocracy has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.
The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll, in part because of authorities cutting access to the internet and blocking international calls into the country.
Iran also reportedly has a limited journalists’ ability locally to report on the aftermath, instead repeatedly airing claims on state television that refer to demonstrators as “rioters” motivated by the United States and Israel, without offering evidence to support the allegation.
The new toll comes as tensions remain high over Trump laying down two red lines over the protests – the killing of peaceful demonstrators and Tehran conducting mass executions.
Iran’s attorney general and others have called some of those being held ‘mohareb’ – or ‘enemies of God.’ That charge carries the death penalty. It had been used along with others to carry out mass executions in 1988 that reportedly killed at least 5,000 people.
Trump has repeatedly said Iran halted the execution of 800 people detained in the protests, without elaborating on the source of the claim. On Friday, Iran’s top prosecutor Mohammad Movahedi strongly denied that in comments carried by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency.
“This claim is completely false; no such number exists, nor has the judiciary made any such decision,” Movahedi said.
His remarks suggested that Iran’s Foreign Ministry, led by Abbas Araghchi, may have offered that figure to Trump. Araghchi has had a direct line to US envoy Steve Witkoff and conducted multiple rounds of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program with him.
“We have a separation of powers, the responsibilities of each institution are clearly defined, and we do not, under any circumstances, take instructions from foreign powers,” Movahedi said.
US warships on the move
The American military, meanwhile, has moved more military assets toward the Mideast, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and associated warships travelling with it from the South China Sea.
A US Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements, said Thursday that the Lincoln strike group is in the Indian Ocean.
Trump said Thursday aboard Air Force One that the US is moving the ships toward Iran “just in case” he wants to take action.
“We have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it,” Trump said.
Trump also mentioned the multiple rounds of talks that American officials had with Iran over its nuclear programme prior to Israel launching a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in June, which saw US warplanes bomb Iranian nuclear sites. He threatened Iran with military action that would make earlier US strikes against its uranium enrichment sites “look like peanuts.”
“They should have made a deal before we hit them,” Trump said.
The UK Defence Ministry separately said that its joint Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet squadron with Qatar, 12 Squadron, “deployed to the (Persian) Gulf for defensive purposes, noting regional tensions.”
Iran shows off drones in Israel threat
Iran commemorated “the Day of the Guardian” Friday, an annual event for its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which was key in putting down the nationwide protests.
To mark the day, an Iranian state television channel aired a typically religious talk show that instead saw its cleric and prayer singers look at Iranian military drones. They fired up the engines of several of the Shahid drones, one of which has been used extensively by Russia in its war on Ukraine.
A man identified as a member of the security forces, who wore a surgical mask and sunglasses during the telecast to hide his identity, also made a threat in mangled Hebrew toward Israel, trying to say: “We are closer to you than you think.
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