The toll in Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests has killed at least 5,002 people, activists said yesterday, warning that 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 due to authorities cutting off access to the Internet on Jan. 8, even as tensions with Washington rises, as a US aircraft carrier group moves closer to the Middle East — a force US President Donald Trump likened to an “armada” in comments to journalists on Thursday.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency offered the death toll, saying 4,716 were demonstrators, 203 were government-affiliated, 43 were children and 40 were civilians not taking part in the protests.
Photo: Reuters
More than 26,800 people had been detained in a widening arrest campaign by authorities, it added.
That death toll exceeded that of other protests or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Iranian government offered its first death toll on Wednesday, saying 3,117 people were killed, adding that 2,427 of the dead in the demonstrations that began on Dec. 28 last year were civilians and security forces, with the rest being “terrorists.” Iran’s theocracy in the past has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.
Iran has also reportedly 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 US 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.
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 on Thursday said the Lincoln strike group was in the Indian Ocean.
Trump said 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.
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