At least 6,126 people killed in Iran crackdown on protests across country, activists say
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Iran’s crackdown on protests nationwide has killed at least 6,126 people and many more are feared dead, activists said on Tuesday, as a US aircraft carrier arrived in the Mideast to spearhead any US military response to the crisis.
The arrival of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and the accompanying guided missile destroyers gives the US the ability to attack Iran, especially since the Gulf Arab countries have signaled that they want to refrain from any attack despite hosting American troops.
Two Iranian-backed militias in the Mideast have shown their willingness to launch a new attack, possibly trying to support Iran after US President Donald Trump threatened military action against peaceful protesters or Tehran launches mass killings following protests.
Iran has also threatened to drag the entire Mideast into war, although its air and military defenses are still shaky after Israel’s June war against the country.
Both the Houthis and Kataib Hezbollah emerged from Israel’s 12-day war on Iran during which America bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities. The reluctance to get involved reflects the confusion that still affects Iran, which calls itself the “Axis of Resistance” after facing Israeli attacks during its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Activists give a new death toll
These new figures on Tuesday came from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in several rounds of unrest in Iran. The group confirms each death with a network of activists on the ground in Iran.
Demonstrations have swept across the country in Iran, but it is not the first time that people have filled the streets to demand change. Nationally, CBC’s Ashley Fraser breaks down the key differences here and why some say the pressure has never been higher on government.
It revealed that the dead included at least 5,777 protesters, 214 soldiers collaborating with the government, 86 children and 49 civilians who were not protesting. The incident resulted in the arrest of more than 41,800 people, it added.
The Associated Press was unable to independently verify the death toll as authorities cut off the Internet and intercepted calls into the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s government put the death toll at 3,117, saying 2,427 were civilians and security forces, and called the others “terrorists.” In the past, the democratic regime of Iran has either counted or not reported the killings due to unrest.
That death toll exceeds that of any other cycle of protest or unrest in decades, and recalls the turmoil surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Protests in Iran began on December 28, triggered by the collapse of the Iranian currency, the rial, and quickly spread across the country. They were met by the violent collapse of Iran’s regime, the scale of which is beginning to become clear as the country has faced more than two weeks of internet blackouts – the most extensive in its history.
Iran’s UN ambassador told a UN Security Council meeting late Monday that Trump’s threats to use war against the country “are neither ironic nor misinterpreted.” Amir Saeid Iravani repeated the allegations that the American leader incited violence by “armed terrorist groups” supported by the United States and Israel, but did not provide evidence to support his claims.
Iran’s state media has tried to blame international forces for the protests as the democratic regime remains unable to cope with the country’s faltering economy, which is still under pressure from international sanctions, especially over its nuclear program.
He is willing to fight
Iran has projected its power across the Mideast through the “Axis of Resistance,” a network of opposition groups in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq, and elsewhere. It was also seen as a defensive measure, intended to keep the conflict away from Iranian borders. But it fell after Israel targeted Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and others during the Gaza war.
Meanwhile, rebels in 2024 toppled Syria’s Bashar Assad after a years-long war, during which Iran supported his rule.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, have repeatedly warned that they could open fire again if necessary on shipping in the Red Sea, releasing old footage of a previous attack on Monday. Ahmad (Abu Hussein) al-Hamidawi, the leader of the Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah, warned “the enemy that the war against the war of Iraq.” [Islamic] The Republic will be no picnic; rather, you will taste the bitter forms of death, and nothing will be left for you in our land.
The Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, one of Iran’s allies, declined to say how it planned to respond in the event of an attack.
“In the past two months, several groups have asked me a clear and straightforward question: If Israel and the United States go to war with Iran, will Hezbollah intervene or not?” Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Kassem said in a video address.
He said the group is preparing for a “possible attack and is prepared to defend itself” against it. But as for how it will work, he said, “these details will be decided by the war and we will decide according to the interests that exist.”
