Commuters walk past an anti-US billboard installed on a building at the Enqelab Square in Tehran. Photo / Atta Kenare, AFP
A US naval strike group led by an aircraft carrier has deployed to Middle Eastern waters, the United States says, as Tehran warned it was ready to hit back at any American attack launched in response to a crackdown on anti-government protests.
A US-based rights group said on Monday that it had confirmed the deaths of nearly 6,000 people in the wave of protests suppressed by Iran’s security forces, but emphasised the actual toll could be several times higher.
The protests started in late December, driven by economic grievances, but turned into a mass movement against the Islamic Republic, with huge street demonstrations for several days from January 8.
But rights groups have accused authorities of quelling the movement with unprecedented violence, shooting into crowds of protesters under the cover of an internet shutdown that has now lasted 18 days – the longest Iran has ever imposed.
US President Donald Trump has previously threatened to intervene, saying last week that Washington was sending a “massive fleet” to the region “just in case”.
The deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group dramatically boosts American firepower in the region.
The strike group has arrived in the Middle East, US Central Command said on Monday, adding it was there “to promote regional security and stability”.
The United States backed and briefly joined Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June, and while Trump last week appeared to step back from his threats of new military intervention, he has never ruled the option out.
Iran’s foreign ministry warned on Monday of a “comprehensive and regret-inducing response to any aggression”.
Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said: “The arrival of such a battleship is not going to affect Iran’s determination and seriousness to defend the Iranian nation.”
A senior military official told state television that the “buildup of extra-regional forces and equipment ... would not act as a deterrent but rather increase their vulnerability and turn them into accessible targets”.
Meanwhile, a new anti-US billboard has appeared in the central Enghelab Square in Tehran that appears to show an American aircraft carrier being destroyed.
“If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind,” its English-language caption reads.
In Lebanon, Iran-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah, whose capabilities and leadership were severely degraded in a war with Israel in 2024, organised a rally in support of the Islamic Republic featuring an address by its leader, Naim Qassem, who warned “a war on Iran this time will ignite the region”.
Iran’s Gulf neighbour, the United Arab Emirates, which hosts a US airbase, said it would not allow attacks on Iran to be launched from its territory.
NGOs tracking the deaths from the crackdown have said their task has been impeded by the internet shutdown, warning that confirmed figures are likely to be far lower than the actual toll.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had confirmed that 5848 people had been killed, including 209 members of the security forces. But the group added it was still investigating another 17,091 possible fatalities.
At least 41,283 people have been arrested, it said.
Giving their first official toll from the protests, Iranian authorities last week said 3117 people were killed, the majority of whom it described as members of the security forces or innocent bystanders killed by “rioters”.
Confirming that the internet blackout remained in place, monitor Netblocks said the shutdown was “obscuring the extent of a deadly crackdown on civilians”.
Hosein Rafieian, a senior Iranian official for matters relating to the digital economy, told the Mehr news agency on Monday that “we hope that companies’ access to the international internet will be restored within the next day or two”.
Over the weekend, Persian-language TV channel Iran International, which is based outside the country, said more than 36,500 Iranians were killed by security forces from January 8 to 9, citing reports, documents and sources. It was not immediately possible to verify the report.
Activists have said that the Revolutionary Guards, a military force separate from the regular army with the mandate of keeping the Islamic revolution alive, took a frontline position in putting down the protests.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Monday urged the European Union to list the Guards as a “terrorist organisation”, as Canada and the United States have done, saying “the losses suffered by the civilian population during the protests demand a clear response”.
- Agence France-Presse