More than 5,000 have been killed in recent protests in Iran, a rights group says, as the regime rejects Trump’s claims.
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Iran’s top prosecutor on Friday called US President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he had halted the hanging of 800 protesters jailed there “absolutely false.” Meanwhile, the death toll from bloodshed in attempted protests across the country has risen to at least 5,002, activists said.
Activists fear that many have died. They are struggling to confirm information as the most widespread internet blackout in Iran’s history has crossed two weeks.
Tensions remain high between the United States and Iran as a group of US aircraft carriers approaches the Middle East – something Trump likened to an “armada” in remarks to reporters late Thursday.
Analysts say the military build-up could give Trump the option to launch strikes, although he has so far refrained from doing so despite repeated warnings from Tehran. The mass killing of prisoners was one of his red lines in the military, and another is the killing of peaceful protesters.
“Although President Trump now seems to have backed down, perhaps under pressure from regional leaders and realizing that airstrikes alone are not enough to contain the regime, military supplies continue to be moved to the region, which shows that it is still possible,” the New York-based Soufan Center think tank said in an analysis on Friday.
Prayer leader throws insults at Trump
Trump has repeatedly said that Iran has stopped the execution of 800 people who were arrested in these protests, without explaining in detail the origin of the claim. On Friday, Iran’s chief prosecutor Mohammad Movahedi denied that in a statement carried by the Mizan judiciary news agency.
“This claim is completely false; there is no such amount, and the law enforcement has not made such a decision,” said Movahedi.
Judiciary officials called some of those arrested moharebwhich is translated as “enemies of God.” That crime carries the death penalty. It was used along with others in the 1988 massacre that reportedly killed at least 5,000 people.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Javad Haji Ali Akbari, the Friday prayer leader in Tehran, mocked Trump as a “yellow-faced, yellow-haired and disgraced man” who is “only like a barking dog.”
“That stupid man has turned to threatening the nation, especially about what he said about the leader of Iran,” said the cleric commenting on Iran’s national radio. “If there is any damage, all your interests and bases in the region will be clear and precise targets of the Iranian forces.”
The latest number of dead people was released by the United States of America-based organization, Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which reported that 4,716 people died protesting, 203 of them were under the government, 43 were children and 40 were civilians who did not participate in the protests. It added that more than 26,800 people have been arrested in the arrest campaign that has been intensified by the authorities.
Iranian journalist and human rights expert Omid Memarian – who was arrested, tortured and forced to confess on television by the Iranian government for his writing – recounts the attacks on people by the government’s torture and explains what is different this time in Iran.
The group’s figures have been accurate in previous unrest in Iran and rely on a network of activists in Iran to confirm casualties. That death toll exceeds that of any other cycle of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the turmoil surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Iranian government gave the first death toll on Wednesday, saying 3,117 people had been killed. It added that 2,427 of those killed in the protests that began on December 28 were civilians and security forces, while the rest were “terrorists.” In the past, Iran’s democratic regime has either counted or underreported the number of people killed in the unrest.
The Associated Press has not been able to independently verify the death toll, in part because authorities have cut off internet access and blocked international calls into the country.
The warships are on their way
The US military, meanwhile, has transferred military assets to the Mideast, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and accompanying warships from the South China Sea.
Trump said Thursday aboard Air Force One that the US is sending ships to Iran “in case” it wants to take action.
“We have a big ship headed there and we probably won’t have to use it,” Trump said.
Trump also revealed the many conversations US officials had with Iran about its nuclear program before Israel launched a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic in June, when US warplanes bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities. He threatened Iran with military action that would make previous US strikes against its uranium enrichment facilities “look like peanuts.”
“They should have made a deal before we hit them,” Trump said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, headed by Abbas Araghchi, had a direct line with the US ambassador Steve Witkoff and held many talks about Iran’s nuclear program with him.
