Activists say Iran's crackdown has killed at least 6,221 people, as the
country's currency plunges
[January 28, 2026]
By JON GAMBRELL
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's bloody crackdown on nationwide
protests has killed at least 6,221 people while many others still are
feared dead, activists said Wednesday, as a U.S. aircraft carrier group
arrived in the Middle East to lead any American military response to the
crisis. Iran's currency, the rial, meanwhile fell to a record low of 1.5
million to $1.
The arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and guided
missile destroyers accompanying it provide the U.S. 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 Mideast have signaled their
willingness to launch new attacks, likely trying to back Iran after U.S.
President Donald Trump threatened military action over the killing of
peaceful protesters or Tehran launching mass executions in the wake of
the demonstrations.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to drag the entire Mideast into a war,
though its air defenses and military are still reeling after the June
war launched by Israel against the country. But the pressure on its
economy may spark new unrest as everyday goods slowly go out of reach of
its people — particularly if Trump chooses to attack.
Ambrey, a private security firm, issued a notice Tuesday saying it
assessed that the U.S. “has positioned sufficient military capability to
conduct kinetic operations against Iran while maintaining the ability to
defend itself and regional allies from reciprocal action.”
“Supporting or avenging Iranian protesters in punitive strikes is
assessed as insufficient justification for sustained military conflict,”
Ambrey wrote. “However, alternative objectives, such as the degradation
of Iranian military capabilities, may increase the likelihood of limited
U.S. intervention.”
Activists offer new death toll
Wednesday's new figures came from the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists
News Agency, which has been accurate in multiple rounds of unrest in
Iran. The group verifies each death with a network of activists on the
ground in Iran.
It said the 6,221 dead included at least 5,858 protesters, 214
government-affiliated forces, 100 children and 49 civilians who weren't
demonstrating. The crackdown has seen over 42,300 arrests, it added.
The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death
toll given authorities cutting off the internet and disrupting calls
into the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s government has put the death toll at a far lower 3,117, saying
2,427 were civilians and security forces, and labeled the rest
“terrorists.” In the past, Iran’s theocracy has undercounted or not
reported fatalities from unrest.
That death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest
there in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic
Revolution.
The protests in Iran began on Dec. 28, sparked by the fall of the
Iranian currency, the rial, and quickly spread across the country. They
were met by a violent crackdown by Iran’s theocracy, the scale of which
is only starting to become clear as the country has faced more than two
weeks of internet blackout — the most comprehensive in its history.
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A vendor waits for customers at Tajrish Square in Tehran, Iran,
Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iran’s U.N. ambassador told a U.N. Security Council meeting late Monday
that Trump’s repeated threats to use military force against the country
“are neither ambiguous nor misinterpreted.” Amir Saeid Iravani also
repeated allegations that the U.S. leader incited violence by “armed
terrorist groups” supported by the United States and Israel, but gave no
evidence to support his claims.
Iranian state media has tried to accuse forces abroad for the protests
as the theocracy remains broadly unable to address the country's ailing
economy, which is still squeezed by international sanctions,
particularly over its nuclear program.
On Tuesday, exchange shops offered the record-low rial-to-dollar rate in
Tehran. Traders declined to speak publicly on the matter, with several
responding angrily to the situation.
Already, Iran has vastly limited its subsidized currency rates to cut
down on corruption. It also has offered the equivalent of $7 a month to
most people in the country to cover rising costs. However, Iran's people
have seen the rial fall from a rate of 32,000 to $1 just a decade ago —
which has devoured the value of their savings.
Some Iranian-backed militias suggest willingness to fight
Iran projected its power across the Mideast through the “Axis of
Resistance,” a network of proxy militant groups in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen,
Syria and Iraq, and other places. It was also seen as a defensive
buffer, intended to keep conflict away from Iranian borders. But it has
collapsed after Israel targeted Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and others
during the Gaza war. Meanwhile, rebels in 2024 overthrew Syria’s Bashar
Assad after a yearslong, bloody war in which Iran backed his rule.
Yemen's Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, have repeatedly warned they could
resume fire if needed on shipping in the Red Sea, releasing old footage
of a previous attack Monday. Ahmad “Abu Hussein” al-Hamidawi, the leader
of Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah militia, warned "the enemies that the war on
the (Islamic) Republic will not be a picnic; rather, you will taste the
bitterest forms of death, and nothing will remain of you in our region.”
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, one of Iran’s staunchest allies,
refused to say how it planned to react in the case of a possible attack.
“During the past two months, several parties have asked me a clear and
frank question: If Israel and America go to war against Iran, will
Hezbollah intervene or not?” Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Kassem said in
a video address.
He said the group is preparing for “possible aggression and is
determined to defend” against it. But as to how it would act, he said,
“these details will be determined by the battle and we will determine
them according to the interests that are present.”
___
Associated Press writers Edith Lederer at the United Nations and Abby
Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.
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