Iran’s Interior Ministry and the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs said 3,117 people were killed during nationwide protests that began Dec. 28, with the tally carried on Iranian state television on Wednesday. The officials said 2,427 of those dead were civilians and security forces, and they did not elaborate on the rest of the figure.
The government announcement came after an overseas human rights group cited a far higher number. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the death toll early Thursday was at least 4,902, adding that more deaths were feared.
The Associated Press said it was unable to independently assess the death toll, citing an internet shutdown that cut access and blocked international calls into the country. AP also said Iranian authorities limited journalists’ ability locally to report on the aftermath, instead repeatedly airing claims on state television that referred to demonstrators as “rioters” motivated by America and Israel without providing evidence to support the allegation.
The protests’ death toll, as described by AP, exceeded that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalled the chaos surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. With no protests for days, there were fears the toll could rise as information gradually emerged from the country during the government-imposed internet shutdown that began Jan. 8.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency also said nearly 26,500 people had been arrested. AP reported that comments by officials led to fears that some detainees could be put to death, while noting that Iran is among the world’s top executioners.
U.S.-Iran tensions were also escalating. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi issued his most-direct threat yet to the United States, warning the Islamic Republic would be “firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack,” according to an opinion article he published in The Wall Street Journal. In the same article, Araghchi wrote that “the violent phase of the unrest lasted less than 72 hours” and sought again to blame armed demonstrators for violence.
Araghchi wrote: “Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025, our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack.” He added: “This isn’t a threat, but a reality I feel I need to convey explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war,” and said: “An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House.” He continued: “It will certainly engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe.”
AP reported that the comments came as Araghchi’s invitation to the World Economic Forum in Davos was rescinded over the killings, and as a U.S. aircraft carrier group moved west toward the Middle East from Asia. AP said U.S. fighter jets and other equipment appeared to be moving in the Middle East after a major U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean involved troops seizing Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
AP also reported that the USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in the South China Sea in recent days, passed through the Strait of Malacca by Tuesday, based on ship-tracking data. The carrier strike group’s heading and location in the Indian Ocean placed it, AP said, only days away from moving into the region, though naval and other defense officials stopped short of saying it was headed to the Middle East.
Separately, Kurdish exiles claimed an attack by Iran in Iraq. The National Army of Kurdistan, the armed wing of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), claimed Iran launched an attack Wednesday against one of its bases near Irbil, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Baghdad. The group said one fighter was killed and released mobile phone footage of a fire in the predawn darkness, while Iran did not immediately acknowledge the attack.
AP reported that Kurdish dissident and separatist groups have long found a safe haven in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, and said the PAK has previously claimed it attacked in Iran as part of a crackdown on demonstrations that it said took place. It added that semiofficial Iranian news agencies have reported some of those claims.