At least 6,126 people have been killed in the suppression of national protests in Iran and there are still fears that many more have died, activists quoted by the Associated Press said. At the same time, a US aircraft carrier group arrived in the Middle East for a possible military response to the crisis, BTA reported.
The arrival of the aircraft carrier "Abraham Lincoln" and its accompanying guided-missile destroyers give the United States the ability to strike Iran, especially after Gulf states signaled they wanted to stay out of a possible attack, even though they have U.S. troops stationed on their soil.
Two Iranian-backed militias in the Middle East have signaled they are ready to launch new attacks, possibly in an attempt to support Iran after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened military action over the killing of peaceful protesters or the possible launch of mass executions by Tehran after the demonstrations.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to drag the entire Middle East into war, although its air defenses and armed forces are still rebuilding after the war started in June by Israel, the AP notes.
Both the Houthis and the Kataib Hezbollah group did not participate in the 12-day war. Israel's war with Iran, during which the United States bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. Their reluctance to intervene highlights the disintegration of Iran's "Axis of Resistance" following Israel's attacks during its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The new figures, released today, were provided by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which has proven accurate in several waves of unrest in Iran. The group verifies each death through a network of activists on the ground in Iran.
It said the dead included at least 5,777 protesters, 214 government-affiliated forces, 86 children and 49 civilians who were not participating in the demonstrations. The crackdown has also led to more than 41,800 arrests, the organization added.
The Associated Press cannot independently confirm the death toll because authorities have cut off the internet and disrupted telephone lines to the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian government has put the death toll at a much lower figure - 3,117 people, saying 2,427 were civilians and security forces, while the rest were terrorists. In the past, the Iranian theocracy has underreported or failed to report the number of people killed in unrest.
The protests in Iran began on December 28, sparked by the collapse of the Iranian currency, the rial, and quickly spread across the country. They were met with a violent crackdown by the Iranian theocracy, the extent of which is only now becoming clear after the country was left without internet for more than two weeks - the longest interruption in its history.
Iran's ambassador to the United Nations told a UN Security Council meeting last night that Trump's repeated threats to use military force against the country were "neither ambiguous nor misinterpreted." Amir Saeed Iravani also repeated accusations that the American leader had encouraged "armed terrorist groups" backed by the United States and Israel to commit violence in Iran, but provided no evidence to support his claims.