More than 5,137 deaths have been confirmed in the massive wave of protests in Iran, the US-based Iranian news agency "Human Rights Activists" reported today, quoted by DPA, BTA reported.
The non-governmental organization is investigating another 12,904 cases, and it is also believed that more than 7,400 people have been seriously injured.
Activists from the organization note that establishing and verifying the number of victims takes time, as internet outages and other disruptions slow this work, so the exact scale of the violence remains unknown.
According to official figures, 3,117 people have lost their lives in the protests, and the Iranian ambassador to Switzerland confirmed in his more than 2,400 people have been killed in "terrorist acts."
The Iranian government has portrayed the protests as a foreign plot, blaming arch-enemies Israel and the United States for the thousands of deaths.
The Iranian military has also stepped up its rhetoric after US President Donald Trump said an "armada" of US warships was heading towards Iran. The commander of the elite Islamic Republic Guard Corps (IRGC), Major General Mohammad Pakpour, warned that the Iranian armed forces had their "finger on the trigger."