TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - U.S. 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 reached the outside world.
Trump delivered the threat while speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One en 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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.
Internet monitor NetBlocks on Friday said that the blackout had now entered its third week.
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 U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) — which has provided accurate numbers during previous unrest in Iran — said that 4,716 people had been killed 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.
On Thursday, Iranian state television said that 200 further arrests had been made in western and southern provinces.
Revolutionary Guard warns Israel, U.S. that it has its 'finger on the trigger'
Iran has accused Israel and the U.S. of being behind the nationwide protest.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard, labeled a terrorist entity by the U.S., Canada and Australia, has been accused of being on the frontline of the government crackdown.
On Thursday, the Iranian government, the army and the IRGC responded to Trump's pressure campaign with warnings.
"The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and dear Iran have their finger on the trigger, more prepared than ever, ready to carry out the orders and measures of the supreme commander-in-chief," said IRGC commander, General Mohammad Pakpour.
Pakpour advised the U.S. and Israel to "avoid any miscalculations," saying they would otherwise face a "painful and regrettable fate."
General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, who runs Iran's Joint Command Headquarters and is under U.S. sanctions, said "all U.S. interests, bases and centers of influence" would become "legitimate targets" in the event of a U.S. attack.
Last June, Iran, Israel and the U.S. sparred in a 12-day war that ended with U.S. long-range bombers attacking nuclear enrichment facilities in the Islamic Republic.
Trump on Thursday said future U.S. attacks would make those carried out last summer "look like peanuts."
Read: Tehran Protests Fueled by Foreign Interference, Says Iranian Ambassador
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