Friday 23 / January / 2026
US President Donald Trump renewed the threat of military action against Iran late Thursday as reports of rising death tolls from a brutal government crackdown on protests reach the outside world.
Trump delivered the threat while speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on route to Washington from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"We have a massive fleet heading in that direction… and maybe we won't have to use it… we have a lot of ships heading in that direction, just in case," Trump said when speaking of a possible US reaction to ongoing unrest in the Islamic Republic.
"We're watching Iran," said Trump. "I'd rather not see anything happen but we're watching them very closely."
Trump had made similar threats before, while also urging Iranian protesters to take over Iranian institutions and pledging that "help is on its way." But the tensions ebbed last week with the US president saying he had received word from Iran that "killing has stopped" and Tehran had no plans to execute detained protesters.
The Pentagon has not confirmed Trump's statement about the US military fleet movements. However, the AP news agency reports the aircraft carrier group USS Abraham Lincoln and a fleet of associated vessels is currently in the Indian Ocean on its way to the Middle East from the South China Sea.
Iran internet and telephone blackout keeps death toll unknown
Iran was rocked by nationwide anti-government protests that began in late December and have yet to be entirely quelled; though the government's brutal crackdown on dissenters has kept most Iranians at home, fearful of repression, arrest or death.
On January 8, Iranian government has decided to cut off all internet access and to block international phone use.
The communication blackout has made it close to impossible to verify death tolls reported by various actors both inside and outside the country. On Wednesday, the Iranian government — which has a historical tendency to underreport the numbers of dead protesters — said 3,117 people had been killed, including security forces.
Death tolls put out by international rights groups have ranged from 4,500 to more than 20,000.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) — which has provided accurate numbers during previous unrest in Iran — said that over 5,000 people had been killed and more than 26,800 arrested.
That death toll exceeds all other protests or unrest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
HRANA noted that not all those killed had been protesters, with several innocent women and children among the dead.
"All the evidence gradually emerging from inside Iran shows that the real number of people killed in the protests is far higher than the official figure," said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights.
This organization reported verifying at least 3,428 deaths.
More arrests made as UN human rights chief urges end to 'brutal repression'
On Thursday, Iranian state television said that 200 further arrests had been made in western and southern provinces.
