Death toll in Iran protest crackdown is 5000
Activists stated that the death toll in Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests has reached at least 5,000 people, and warned that many more people are feared to die as the most comprehensive internet outage in the country’s history exceeds two weeks.
The difficulty of obtaining information from Iran continues after authorities cut off internet access on January 8.
Tensions between the US and Iran are rising as the American aircraft carrier group moves closer to the Middle East; It’s a force that US President Donald Trump likened to a “navy” in comments to reporters late Thursday.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency announced the death toll, reporting that 4,716 demonstrators included 203 government affiliates, 43 children and 40 civilians who did not participate in the protests.
It was also stated that more than 26,800 people were detained as part of the authorities’ expanding arrest campaign.
The group’s figures have been accurate in previous unrest in Iran and rely on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths.
This death toll exceeds that of other protests and unrest in Iran in decades and is reminiscent of the chaos surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Iranian government announced its first death toll on Wednesday, saying 3,117 people had died.
It was stated that 2,027 of those who died in the demonstrations that started on December 28 were civilians and security forces, while the rest were “terrorists”.
Iran’s theocracy has in the past undercounted or not reported deaths from unrest.
The Associated Press was unable to independently assess the death toll, in part because authorities cut off internet access and blocked international calls to the country.
Iran also reportedly limited the ability of journalists to cover the event locally, instead repeatedly airing claims on state television that referred to demonstrators as “rebels” motivated by America and Israel, without providing any evidence to support the claim.
The new price comes at a time when tensions are high as Trump draws two red lines on the protests – killing peaceful demonstrators and Tehran carrying out mass executions.
Iran’s attorney general and others have described some of those detained as “mohareb,” or “enemies of Allah.”
This charge carries the death penalty.
It was used, along with others, to carry out mass executions in 1988 that reportedly killed at least 5,000 people.
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