The death toll from Iran's violent suppression of nationwide anti-government protests has reportedly reached at least 5,002, according to activists. They warn that many more lives are feared lost amidst the country's most comprehensive internet blackout, which has now extended beyond two weeks.
The ongoing challenge of obtaining information from Iran persists due to authorities cutting off internet access on January 8. This domestic turmoil unfolds as tensions escalate between the United States and Iran, with an American aircraft carrier group moving closer to the Middle East – a force US president Donald Trump once likened to an "armada".
The US-based 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.
It added that more than 26,800 people had been detained in a widening arrest campaign by authorities.
The group's figures have been accurate in previous unrest in Iran and rely on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths.
That death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran's government offered its first death toll on Wednesday, saying 3,117 people were killed. It added that 2,427 of the dead in the demonstrations that began December 28 were civilians and security forces, with the rest being "terrorists".
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 Mr 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 meanwhile 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 official said on Thursday that the Lincoln strike group is currently in the Indian Ocean.
Mr Trump said Thursday aboard Air Force One that 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," Mr Trump said.
The US leader also mentioned the multiple rounds of talks American officials had with Iran over its nuclear programme prior to Israel launching a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in June, which saw US warplanes bomb Iranian nuclear sites. He threatened Iran with military action that would make earlier US strikes against its uranium enrichment sites "look like peanuts".
"They should have made a deal before we hit them," Mr Trump added.
The UK's Ministry of Defence separately said its joint Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet squadron with Qatar, 12 Squadron, "deployed to the (Persian) Gulf for defensive purposes noting regional tensions".
