DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Activists said Friday the death toll from a crackdown over Iran’s nationwide protests reached at least 5,002 people killed, with many more still feared dead.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency offered the toll. The agency has been accurate in previous rounds of unrest in Iran and relies on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths.
Iran’s government offered its first death toll Wednesday, saying 3,117 people were killed. 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 journalists’ ability 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 U.S. President Donald Trump laying down two red lines over the protests — the killing of peaceful demonstrators and Tehran conducting mass executions. The U.S. 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.
Trump said Thursday aboard Air Force One that the U.S. 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 said he had threatened Iran with military action that would make earlier U.S. strikes against its nuclear sites “look like peanuts” if the government proceeded with planned executions of some protesters.
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