People walk past a billboard with a graphic showing a U.S. aircraft carrier with damaged fighter jets on its deck, and a billboard that reads in Farsi and English: “If you sow wind, you will reap whirlwinds,” at Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) Square in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026.
Vahid Salemi/AP
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Vahid Salemi/AP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests has killed at least 6,126 people, while many others are still feared dead, activists said Tuesday, as a U.S. aircraft carrier group arrived in the Middle East to lead any U.S. military response to the crisis.
The arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and accompanying guided missile destroyers gives the United States the ability to strike Iran, particularly as Gulf Arab states have signaled they want to stay out of any attack despite hosting American military personnel.
Two Iranian-backed militias in the Middle East have signaled their willingness to launch new attacks, likely seeking to back Iran after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened military action over the killing of peaceful protesters or Tehran launching mass executions over the protests.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to drag the entire Middle East into war, although its air defenses and military are still reeling after the war launched in June by Israel against the country.
Both the Houthis and Kataib Hezbollah did not participate in Israel’s 12-day war against Iran, in which the United States bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. The hesitancy to get involved shows the disarray that still plagues Iran’s self-styled “Axis of Resistance” after facing attacks from Israel during its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Activists offer new death toll
Tuesday’s new figures come from the US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency, which has been accurate on multiple rounds of unrest in Iran. The group verifies each death with a network of activists on the ground in Iran.
He identified among the dead at least 5,777 protesters, 214 government-affiliated forces, 86 children and 49 civilians who were not demonstrating. The repression has led to more than 41,800 arrests, he added.
A Hezbollah supporter waves an Iranian flag during a rally to show solidarity with the Iranian government, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026.
Hussein Malla/AP
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Hussein Malla/AP
The Associated Press has not been able to independently assess the death toll because authorities shut down the Internet and interrupted calls to the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s government has put the death toll at a much lower 3,117, saying 2,427 were civilians and security forces, and calling the rest “terrorists.” In the past, the Iranian theocracy has underreported or underreported deaths caused by unrest.
That death toll exceeds that of any other round of protests or unrest in decades and is reminiscent of the chaos that surrounded Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Protests in Iran began on December 28, sparked by the fall of the Iranian currency, the rial, and quickly spread throughout the country. They faced violent repression by the Iranian theocracy, the magnitude of which is only beginning to become clear as the country has faced more than two weeks of an internet blackout, the most complete in its history.
Iran’s U.N. ambassador told a U.N. Security Council meeting Monday night that Trump’s repeated threats to use military force against the country are “neither ambiguous nor misinterpreted.” Amir Saeid Iravani also reiterated accusations that the American leader incited violence by “armed terrorist groups” supported by the United States and Israel, but provided no evidence to support his claims.
Iranian state media has sought to blame forces abroad for the protests, as the theocracy remains largely unable to address the country’s ailing economy, which is still strained by international sanctions, particularly over its nuclear program.
Some Iran-backed militias suggest willingness to fight
Iran projected its power throughout the Middle East through the “Axis of Resistance,” a network of militant groups in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq, and elsewhere. It was also seen as a defensive buffer, intended to keep conflict away from Iranian borders. But it collapsed after Israel attacked Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and others during the Gaza war. Meanwhile, rebels overthrew Bashar Assad in Syria in 2024 after a bloody, years-long war in which Iran backed his government.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have repeatedly warned they could resume firing if necessary against shipping in the Red Sea, and on Monday released old footage of an earlier attack. Ahmad “Abu Hussein” al-Hamidawi, leader of the Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah, warned “enemies that the war against the (Islamic) Republic will not be a picnic; rather, you will taste the bitterest forms of death, and there will be nothing left of you in our region.”
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, one of Iran’s staunchest allies, declined to say how it planned to react in the event of a possible attack.
“Over the past two months, several parties have asked me a clear and frank question: If Israel and the United States go to war against Iran, will Hezbollah intervene or not?” Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Kassem said in a video speech.
He said the group is preparing for “possible aggression and is determined to defend itself” against it. But as to how he will act, he said, “these details will be determined by the battle and we will determine them according to the interests that are present.”