Month: January 2026

Kalinga TV – A US-based human rights organization says more than 5,000 people have been killed during the recent wave of protests in Iran, warning that the true death toll is likely far higher due to a prolonged internet shutdown that has hindered documentation efforts.

According to the sources, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said on Friday that it had confirmed the deaths of 5,002 people since protests erupted across the country. According to the group, 4,714 of those killed were protesters, including 42 minors. The toll also includes 207 members of the security forces and 39 bystanders. HRANA said it is still investigating nearly 9,800 additional possible fatalities.

The group also reported that at least 26,852 people have been arrested in connection with the demonstrations.

Iranian authorities released their first official casualty figures earlier this week, stating that 3,117 people were killed. The country’s foundation for martyrs and veterans claimed that 2,427 of the dead were “martyrs,” a term it uses for security personnel and civilians.
HRANA said the government’s figures were an attempt to reinforce its official narrative surrounding the protests and the resulting violence.
Another rights group, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), said it has documented at least 3,428 protesters killed by security forces and warned that the final death toll could reach as high as 25,000.

The nationwide internet blackout, now in its second week, remains largely in place. Monitoring group Netblocks reported limited connectivity, noting that while some messaging apps and VPN access have partially returned, international internet traffic remains heavily restricted.

Iran Rejects US Claims on Executions

Meanwhile, Iran has denied claims by US President Donald Trump that American pressure halted the execution of hundreds of protesters. The White House said on January 15 that 800 executions scheduled for the previous day had been stopped following US intervention.

Iran’s prosecutor general, Mohammad Movahedi-Azad, rejected the assertion, calling it “completely false” and saying no such executions had been planned.

While no executions of protesters have been officially confirmed, rights groups warn that many detainees face charges that carry the death penalty.

Iran is the world’s second-largest executioner after China, according to human rights organizations. IHR estimates that at least 1,500 people were executed in Iran last year. During the major protest movement between 2022 and 2023, at least 12 protesters were executed.

Since the outbreak of war with Israel in June, Iran has also executed 12 individuals on charges of espionage for Israel, according to IHR.

Rights groups say executions for other crimes, including drug-related offenses and murder, have continued during the protests. HRANA reported that at least 14 prisoners were executed this week alone, though the internet shutdown has made it difficult to confirm details, as many executions are not publicly announced.

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Haberler – Protests that began due to economic issues in Iran continue on their 28th day, with the number of those killed in the demonstrations reported to be 5,137. Following Iranian leader Khamenei’s assessment that the risk of a U.S. attack has increased, it is claimed that he has moved to a special underground shelter in Tehran, described as a fortified area with interconnected tunnels.

The US-based Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) announced that the number of people who lost their lives in protests that began due to economic issues in Iran has risen to 5,137.

According to HRANA’s report, 27,797 people have been detained as a result of incidents in many parts of the country. In the events that occurred during the protests, 5,137 people, including 208 security personnel, lost their lives. HRANA had reported yesterday that the death toll had risen to 5,002.

CLAIM THAT WILL CREATE AGENDA REGARDING HAMANEY

As the protests in Iran continue on their 28th day, a claim regarding religious leader Ali Hamaney has made significant waves.

SOURCES CLOSE TO THE GOVERNMENT CONFIRMED

After Hamaney assessed that the risk of a possible US attack had increased, he moved to a special underground shelter in Tehran. This information was conveyed to Iran International by two sources close to the government. The facility was described as a fortified area with interconnected tunnels.

DAILY MANAGEMENT TAKEN OVER BY HIS SON

Sources stated that the religious leader’s third son, Mesud Hamenei, has taken over the daily management of the leader’s office and serves as the main channel of communication with the government’s executive bodies.

PROTESTS IN IRAN

Protests that began on December 28, 2025, led by shopkeepers in the Grand Bazaar of Tehran due to the rapid depreciation of the local currency against foreign currencies and the deepening economic troubles have spread across the country. During the intensified protests in the capital Tehran on January 8, the government had blocked internet access due to the incidents that occurred.

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New York Times – In Tehran, the capital of Iran, security forces opened fire at protesters from the roof of a police station. In Karaj, they fired live rounds into a march, shooting one person in the head. In Isfahan, young men barricaded themselves in an alley as gunfire and explosions rang out.

Scattered protests had percolated since late December, starting with a strike in Tehran’s bazaar and fueled by a plunging economy. But by early January, Iranians had revolted en masse, and the security forces began to crack down with deadly force.

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 Al Jazeera – The Iranian state has rejected a resolution by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council that strongly condemned the “violent crackdown on peaceful protests” by security forces that left thousands dead.

After a detailed meeting and discussions in Geneva on Friday, 25 members of the council, including France, Japan and South Korea, voted in favour of the censure resolution.

Seven votes against, including from China, India and Pakistan, as well as 14 abstentions, among others from Qatar and South Africa, failed to stop the resolution.

The human rights council called on Iran to stop the arrests of people in connection with the protests, and to take steps to “prevent extrajudicial killing, other forms of arbitrary deprivation of life, enforced disappearance, sexual and gender-based violence” and other actions violating its human rights obligations.

Iran said that the Western-led sponsors of the emergency meeting on Friday had never genuinely cared for human rights in Iran, or else they would not have imposed sanctions that have devastated the Iranian population over the past decade.

Ali Bahreini, Iran’s envoy in the meeting, reiterated the state’s claim that 3,117 people were killed during the unrest, 2,427 of whom were killed by “terrorists” armed and funded by the United States, Israel and their allies.

“It was ironic that states whose history was stained with genocide and war crimes now attempted to lecture Iran on social governance and human rights,” he said.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says it has confirmed at least 5,137 deaths during the protests, and is investigating 12,904 others.

UN special rapporteur on Iran, Mai Sato, has said the death toll could reach 20,000 or more as reports from doctors from inside Iran emerge. Al Jazeera has been unable to independently verify the figures.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk told the council that “the brutality in Iran continued, creating conditions for further human rights violations, instability and bloodshed” weeks after the killings on January 8 and January 9, when a communications blackout was also enforced.

Turk pointed out that executions for murder, drug-related and other charges continue across Iran, with the state executing at least 1,500 people in 2025, marking an enormous 50 percent increase compared with the year before.

Payam Akhavan, a professor and former UN prosecutor of Iranian-Canadian nationality who was at Friday’s meeting as a civil society representative, called the killings “the worst mass-murder in the contemporary history of Iran”.

He said as a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague, he had helped draft the indictment for the Srebrenica genocide in which some 8,000 Bosniaks were killed in July 1995.

“By comparison, at least twice that number had been killed in Iran in half the time. This was an extermination,” he said.

The adopted UN council resolution also extended the mandate of the special rapporteur for another year, while adding two more years to the mandate of the independent fact-finding mission that was formed to investigate killings and rights abuses during Iran’s nationwide protests in 2022 and 2023.

More videos emerge despite internet blackout

Meanwhile, the internet blackout continues to be enforced amid growing frustration and anger from the public and businesses alike.

Global internet observatory Netblocks reported that international internet remained effectively blocked on Saturday despite brief moments of connectivity.

Some users have been able to overcome the digital blackout over recent days for short periods of time using a variety of proxies and virtual private networks (VPNs).

The limited number of users who have managed to get online, whether by using a combination of circumvention tools or leaving the country’s borders, continue to upload horrifying footage of killings during the protests.

International human rights bodies like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have attested that many of the reviewed videos show state forces firing live ammunition at protesters, including from heavy machineguns.

The state rejects all such accounts, claiming that security forces only fired at “terrorists” and “rioters” who attacked government offices and burned public property.

Threat of war looms

The back and forth over one of Iran’s bloodiest chapters since its 1979 revolution continues as the threat of war looms large over the embattled 90-million-strong nation once again.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in Iran if it kills protesters. Washington is moving the USS Abraham Lincoln supercarrier, along with its strike group of supporting vessels, towards the Middle East in a move that has raised fears of more US strikes on Iran in the aftermath of the 12-day war with Israel in June.

More US military aircraft, including fighter jets, have also been deployed to the region despite interventions from regional powers in an attempt to prevent an escalation.

Top Iranian authorities continue to send defiant messages to US President Donald Trump amid the rapid military buildup.

“He [Trump] certainly says many things,” Majid Mousavi, the new aerospace chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), told state television on Saturday. “He can be certain that we will respond to him in the field of battle”.

“He can say better things even if he is trying to escape the wishes of others who want to impose things on him,” said Ali Shamkhani, a top security official and representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the newly formed Supreme Defence Council.

One of Iran’s top judicial authorities also shot back at Trump after the US president last week called for the end of Khamenei’s 37-year-rule in the country.

“These acts of insolence and audacity are, in our view, tantamount to a declaration of all-out war, and based on this approach, in the event of any aggression, US interests around the world will be exposed to threat by supporters of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said Mohammad Movahedi, the hardline cleric who heads the prosecutor general’s authority.

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ABC News – The bloodiest crackdown on dissent since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution is slowly coming into focus, despite authorities cutting off the Islamic Republic from the internet and much of the wider world.

Cities and towns smell of smoke as fire-damaged mosques and government offices line streets. Banks have been torched, their ATMs smashed. Officials estimate the damage to be at least $125 million, according to an Associated Press tally of reports by the state-run IRNA news agency from over 20 cities.

The number of dead demonstrators reported by activists continues to swell. Activists warn it shows Iran engaging in the same tactics it has used for decades, but at an unprecedented scale — firing from rooftops on demonstrators, shooting birdshot into crowds and sending motorcycle-riding paramilitary Revolutionary Guard volunteers in to beat and detain those who can’t escape.

“The vast majority of protesters were peaceful. The video footage shows crowds of people — including children and families — chanting, dancing around bonfires, marching on their streets,” said Raha Bahreini, of Amnesty International. “The authorities have opened fire unlawfully.”

The killing of peaceful protesters — as well as the threat of mass executions — have been a red line for military action for U.S. President Donald Trump. An American aircraft carrier and warships are approaching the Mideast, possibly allowing Trump to launch another attack on Iran after bombing its nuclear enrichment sites last year. That risks igniting a new Mideast war.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to detailed questions from the AP regarding the suppression of the demonstrations.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 at Tehran’s historic Grand Bazaar, initially over the collapse of Iran’s currency, the rial, then spread across the country.

Tensions exploded on Jan. 8, with demonstrations called for by Iran’s exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi. Witnesses in Tehran told the AP before authorities cut internet and phone communication that they saw tens of thousands of demonstrators on the streets.

As communications failed, gunfire echoed through Tehran.

“Many witnesses said they had never seen such a large number of protesters on the streets,” said Bahar Saba of Human Rights Watch. “Iranian authorities have repeatedly shown they have no answers other than bullets and brutal repression to people taking to the streets.”

Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian, a deputy interior minister speaking on state TV Wednesday, acknowledged the violence began in earnest on Jan. 8.

“More than 400 cities were involved,” he said.

By Jan. 9, Revolutionary Guard Gen. Hossein Yekta, previously identified as leading plainclothes units of the force, went on Iranian state TV and warned “mothers and fathers” to keep their children home.

“Tonight you all must be vigilant. Tonight is the night for keeping mosques, all bases everywhere filled with ‘Hezbollahi,’” Yekta said, using a word for “followers of God” that carries the connotation of fervent supporters of Iran’s theocracy.

Already weakened by the 12-day war Israel launched against Iran in June, the authorities decided to fully employ violence to end the demonstrations, experts said.

“I think the regime viewed it as this was a moment of existential threat and that they could either allow it to play out and allow the protests to build and allow foreign powers to increase their rhetoric and increase their demands on Iran,” said Afshon Ostovar, an expert on the Revolutionary Guard and professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, California.

“Or they could turn out the lights, kill as many people as necessary … and hope they could get away with it. And I think that’s what they ultimately did.”

In Iran, one of the main ways its theocracy can squash demonstrations is through the Basij, the Guard’s volunteer arm.

Iranian state media repeatedly has aired images of mosques damaged in the protests without exploring their links to the Basij.

“Most neighborhood Basij bases are co-located with mosques and most neighborhood Basij leaders are associated with the mosque leadership,” Ostovar said, adding that demonstrators “going after regime targets” associated with repression would have considered them “a legitimate part of it.”

Videos show Basij holding long guns, batons and pellet guns. Anti-riot police can be seen wearing helmets and body armor, carrying assault rifles and submachine guns.

The videos show police firing shotguns into crowds, something authorities deny despite corpses showing wounds consistent with metal birdshot. Scores have reportedly suffered blinding eye wounds from birdshot — something seen in the protests around the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini.

Iran’s semiofficial ILNA news agency reported that Tehran’s Farabi Eye Hospital, the premiere clinic for eye injuries, called in “all current and retired doctors” to help those injured.

We “received accounts that the security forces were just firing relentlessly at protesters,” said Bahreini of Amnesty International.

“They’re not just targeting one or two people to create a climate of terror for people to disperse … but just relentlessly firing at thousands of protesters and chasing after them, even as they were fleeing so that more people were just collapsing to the ground with severe gunshot wounds.”

For two weeks, Iran offered no overall casualty figures. Then on Wednesday, the government said 3,117 people were killed, including 2,427 civilians and security forces. That left another 690 dead that Pourjamshidian identified as “terrorists.”

That conflicts with figures from the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which put the death toll on Saturday at 5,137, based on activists inside Iran verifying fatalities against public records and witness statements. It said 4,834 were demonstrators, 208 were government-affiliated personnel, 54 were children and 41 were civilians not participating in protests.

Death tolls in Iran have long been inflated or deflated for political reasons. But the fact that Iran’s theocracy offered any death toll — and gave a number beyond any other political unrest to strike the country in the modern era — underlines the scale of what happened.

It also provides a justification for the ongoing mass arrest campaign and internet shutdown. State media report dozens to hundreds of people detained daily.

Pourjamshidian also gave an extensive list of vandalism from the protests and crackdown, including 750 banks, 414 government buildings, 600 ATMs and hundreds of vehicles that sustained damage.

Meanwhile, uncertainty looms for Iran’s theocracy over what Trump may or may not do.

Traditionally, Iranians hold memorial services for their late loved ones 40 days after their deaths — meaning the country could see renewed demonstrations around Feb. 17. Online videos from Behesht-e Zahra, the massive cemetery on the outskirts of Tehran, show mourners chanting: “Death to Khamenei!”

Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the AP show large numbers of cars daily at Behesht-e Zahra’s southern reaches, where those killed in the demonstrations are being buried.

Elaheh Mohammadi, a journalist at Tehran’s pro-reform newspaper Ham Mihan, recently noted it had been shut by authorities. She said journalists were working on stories about Behesht-e Zahra they weren’t able to publish.

“We send out a message to let people know we’re still alive,” Mohammadi wrote online. “The city smells of death.”

“Hard days have passed and everyone is stunned; a whole country is in mourning, a whole country is holding back tears, a whole country has a lump in its throat.”

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Deutsche Welle – The internet in Iran has been largely shut down since January 8. There is no planned date for a complete restoration of the connection, Deputy Interior Minister Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian said on state television on Wednesday,

He is also secretary of the National Security Council, which has accused “arch enemies” Israel and the United States of numerous “acts of terrorism” committed across the country on the nights of January 8 and 9. This was a continuation of the “imposed war” of June 2025, the council claimed.

The official death toll from the mass protests that began in late December was also released on Wednesday. According to these figures, 3,117 people have been killed. Of these, 2,427 were “innocent people and guardians of order and security” who were deemed martyrs.

Pressuring families

Relatives of demonstrators who have been killed report that the authorities exerted massive pressure on them before releasing their bodies. The bereaved were required to sign a statement calling the dead voluntary members of the Basij militia. The Basij is under the command of the Revolutionary Guard and instrumental in the suppression of the protests.

Those who refuse to sign this statement have to pay a large sum of “bullet money,” as one source named Farazaneh told DW. She learned from her relatives by telephone that her nephew had been killed on January 8. His parents refused to sign the statement, and in response officials demanded money for the release of the body.

Human rights organizations believe that the actual number of victims is significantly higher than the what officials have named so far. In a report dated January 22, Norway-based Iran Human Rights estimates that there have been more than 25,000 deaths. The organization has documented 3,428 cases so far.

“Our statistics are based on the documentation standards of human rights organizations. They must either be confirmed by two independent sources, or our organization must have direct access to a very reliable source,” director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam told DW. “Some of these statistics include direct reports from victims as well as information from the medical field and reliable sources known to us.”

The communication blackout is making human rights work considerably more difficult. Currently, Iranians can only contact the outside world via landlines with very high fees. But it remains impossible to contact people from the outside.

HRANA, the US-based news agency for Human Rights Activists in Iran, reported 4,519 confirmed deaths at the beginning of the week, with more than 9,000 additional cases still under investigation.

Injuries going unreported

These cases do not include numerous demonstrators who were injured by live ammunition. Fearing repression, many are reportedly avoiding medical facilities.

Iranian doctors abroad report conversations with colleagues in Iran who say that hospitals in many cities are seeing a dramatic increase in gunshot wounds, especially to the eyes.

Amir Mobarez Parasta, an Iranian-German eye surgeon and head of an eye center in Munich, told DW that he had learned that around 7,000 serious eye injuries had been recorded in a specialized eye hospital in Tehran alone by January 16.

Parasta, who treated numerous demonstrators who fled to Germany with eye injuries after the nationwide protests in 2022 following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, emphasized that the injured must be treated by specialists as quickly as possible.

“There are medical protocols in Iranian hospitals, and medical staff generally refrain from reporting cases that could later be used for criminal prosecution,” he said. “We already observed this during the Mahsa movement. Fortunately, medical staff are siding with the protesters.”

The latest wave of protests in Iran was triggered by a worsening economic crisis and rising inflation, quickly growing nationwide to encompass wider resistance to the authoritarian political system. The regime has responded with massive, brutal force.

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Le Monde –  A US-based rights group said Friday, January 23, it has confirmed the deaths of more than 5,000 people during protests that swept Iran, and that the vast majority were protesters targeted by security forces.

NGOs tracking the toll from the crackdown on the biggest protests in Iran in years have said their task has been impeded by the now two-week internet shutdown, warning that confirmed figures are likely to be far lower than the actual toll.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had confirmed that 5,002 people had been killed, including 4,714 protesters, 42 minors, 207 members of the security forces and 39 bystanders. The group added it was still investigating another 9,787 possible fatalities. At least 26,852 people have been arrested, it said.

Giving their first official toll from the protests, Iranian authorities on Wednesday said 3,117 people were killed. The statement from Iran’s foundation for martyrs and veterans sought to draw a distinction between “martyrs,” who it said were members of security forces or innocent bystanders, and what it described as “rioters” backed by the United States. Of its toll of 3,117, it said 2,427 people were “martyrs.”

HRANA said that by issuing their own toll, the authorities had “attempted to solidify the government’s official narrative regarding the killings.” Another NGO, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), says it has documented at least 3,428 killings of protesters by the security forces and warned that the final toll risks reaching the scale of 25,000.

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CBS News – Iranian leaders say weeks of protests against the Islamic Republic have largely subsided.

They describe the demonstrations as “riots” influenced by the United States and Israel.

Iranian state television says more than 3,000 people were killed during recent nationwide protests, but sources tell CBS News that number may actually be as high as 20,000 people.

“The question is, how many more people is the Islamic Republic willing to kill to stay in power?” asked Iranian immigrant and political activist Babak Behzadi.

Behzadi sees images on his phone of the Iran of today and the country looks a lot different than the one he grew up in.

“I saw Iran during the Shah, and Iran was very pro-Western. We were watching the cartoons growing up with ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ show, and Iran was moving forward,” Behzadi said.

In 1979, the Islamic Republic took control of Iran following the Iranian Revolution.

“Then the theocratic government took over, and every value that we had, they were against,” Behzadi said. “It is a brutal, brutal government, repressive government.”

Behzadi says in the years that followed, he saw the rights of women and other groups under attack.

Behzadi left Iran when he was 16. Today, he advocates for his people from afar.

“Iranian people, I believe they deserve much more and much better,” Behzadi said.

Demonstrations sparked in late December by anger over economic hardship exploded into mass protests against Iran’s Islamic rulers.

“The slogans that they have, it’s regime change. When they say, ‘Death to the dictator,’ meaning that we don’t want this government,” Behzadi said.

Two weeks ago, Iranian authorities cut off phone service and internet access.

“There is no internet. Thus there is no witnesses. The massacre starts,” Behzadi said.

Behzadi hasn’t heard from his family in Iran since.

“I have two brothers, yes, but I have 90 million Iranians who are my family,” Behzadi said.

But he receives periodic updates and videos from activists in the country.

“They literally have taken people from the hospital to the streets and shot them,” Behzadi said. “One of my friends just called me yesterday, said our state, the province I come from … it looks like a war-torn city … and it is like that everywhere.”

Videos verified by CBS News show bodies of hundreds of people killed as security forces crack down on protests.

“This is massacre of the people. It hurts. And, you know, all we can do is let you guys know what’s happening,” Behzadi said.

Behzadi hopes leaders in Colorado and beyond will step in.

“People are angry. The whole nation is angry. But they also feel hopeless. I think the international community, to stop the atrocities, have to help them any which way they can,” Behzadi said. “I’m hoping at least the senators we have … (Sen. Michael) Bennet and (Sen. John) Hickenlooper, understand that neutrality in front of brutality is not balance. It’s silence. We need action from our representatives.”

President Trump said earlier this month that the U.S. wasn’t moving forward with military strikes against Iran for its treatment of protesters because the country’s regime assured him that executions had been “canceled.” He said more recently that “new leadership” in Iran is needed.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency reports more than 26,000 people have been arrested.

Monday, Iran’s national police chief said protesters who turn themselves in by Thursday would receive lighter punishment.

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The Times of Israel – The death toll from Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests reached at least 5,002 people killed Friday, activists said, warning many more still were feared dead as the most comprehensive internet blackout in the country crossed the two-week mark.

The challenge in getting information out of Iran persists due to authorities cutting off access to the world through the internet on January 8, even as tensions rise between the United States and Iran as an American aircraft carrier group moves closer to the Middle East.

The US-based Human Rights Activists’ News Agency offered the toll, saying 4,716 were demonstrators, 203 were government-affiliated, 43 were children and 40 were civilians not taking part in the protests. It added that over 26,800 people had been detained in a widening arrest campaign by authorities.

The agency has been accurate in previous rounds of unrest in Iran and relies on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths. Other groups have said the total death toll from the protests will be far higher.

Iran’s government offered its first death toll on 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.” Iran’s theocracy in the past has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.

The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll, in part due to authorities cutting access to the internet and blocking international calls into the country. Iran also reportedly has limited the ability of journalists locally to report on the aftermath, instead repeatedly airing claims on state television that refer to demonstrators as “rioters” motivated by America and Israel, without offering evidence to support the allegation.

The new toll comes as tensions remain high over US President Donald Trump laying down two red lines over the protests — the killing of peaceful demonstrators and Tehran conducting mass executions. The US military has moved more military assets toward the Mideast, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and associated warships traveling 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 currently in the Indian Ocean. One official said additional air-defense systems were also being eyed for the Middle East, which could be critical to guard against any Iranian strike on US bases in the region.

The deployments expand the options available to Trump, both to better defend US forces throughout the region at a moment of high tension and to take any additional military action after striking Iranian nuclear sites in June.

In the past, the US military has periodically surged forces to the Middle East at times of heightened tensions, moves that were often defensive. However, the US military staged a major buildup last year ahead of the June strikes.

In remarks on Thursday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that the US is moving an “armada” of 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. “I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely.”

“At an hour before this horrible thing was going to take place, they canceled it,” he said, referring to the nearly 840 hangings that he claimed the Islamic Republic cancelled after his threats, calling it “a good sign.”

Trump also mentioned the multiple rounds of talks American officials had with Iran over its nuclear program prior to Israel launching the 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in June and the US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites. He threatened Iran with military action that would make the earlier US strikes against its uranium enrichment sites “look like peanuts.”

“They should have made a deal before we hit them,” Trump added.

“If they try to do it again, they have to go to another area. We’ll hit them there too, just as easily,” he said.

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Deutsche Welle – US President Donald Trump renewed the threat of military action against Iran late Thursday as reports of rising death tolls from a brutal government crackdown on protests reach the outside world.

Trump delivered the threat while speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on route to Washington from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“We have a massive fleet heading in that direction… and maybe we won’t have to use it… we have a lot of ships heading in that direction, just in case,” Trump said when speaking of a possible US reaction to ongoing unrest in the Islamic Republic.

“We’re watching Iran,” said Trump. “I’d rather not see anything happen but we’re watching them very closely.”

Trump had made similar threats before, while also urging Iranian protesters to take over Iranian institutions and pledging that “help is on its way.” But the tensions ebbed last week with the US president saying he had received word from Iran that “killing has stopped” and Tehran had no plans to execute detained protesters.

The Pentagon has not confirmed Trump’s statement about the US military fleet movements. However, the AP news agency reports the aircraft carrier group USS Abraham Lincoln and a fleet of associated vessels is currently in the Indian Ocean on its way to the Middle East from the South China Sea.

Iran internet and telephone blackout keeps death toll unknown

Iran was rocked by nationwide anti-government protests that began in late December and have yet to be entirely quelled; though the government’s brutal crackdown on dissenters has kept most Iranians at home, fearful of repression, arrest or death.

On January 8, Iranian government has decided to cut off all internet access and to block international phone use.

Internet monitor NetBlocks on Friday said that the blackout had now entered its third week.

The IT company Cloudflare said later Friday that nationwide data traffic when accessing websites has now reached around 30% of the usual level from before the blockade.

Limited or blocked communication has made it close to impossible to verify death tolls reported by various actors both inside and outside the country. On Wednesday, the Iranian government — which has a historical tendency to underreport the numbers of dead protesters — said 3,117 people had been killed, including security forces.

Death tolls put out by international rights groups have ranged from 4,500 to more than 20,000.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) — which has provided accurate numbers during previous unrest in Iran — said that over 5,000 people had been killed and more than 26,800 arrested.

That death toll exceeds all other protests or unrest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

HRANA noted that not all those killed had been protesters, with several innocent women and children among the dead.

“All the evidence gradually emerging from inside Iran shows that the real number of people killed in the protests is far higher than the official figure,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights.

This organization reported verifying at least 3,428 deaths.

More arrests made as UN human rights chief urges end to ‘brutal repression’   

On Thursday, Iranian state television said that 200 further arrests had been made in western and southern provinces.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk urged Tehran on Friday to end its “brutal ⁠repression,” saying that children included the thousands killed.

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