Iran Revolutionary Guard Warns U.S. as Carrier Heads Toward Middle East

Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said the IRGC is "more ready than ever, finger on the trigger," Nournews reported, as U.S. warships including USS Abraham Lincoln moved toward the Middle East, a U.S. Navy official said.

Nationwide anti-regime protests that began Dec. 28 prompted a violent crackdown that the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said killed 5,137 people while Iran's government reported 3,117 deaths, HRANA and Iranian officials said.

President Donald Trump said he was moving a "massive fleet" toward Iran and on Jan. 16 posted on Truth Social that Iran had canceled more than 800 scheduled hangings, a figure Iran's top prosecutor Mohammad Movahedi called "completely false," Movahedi said.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported more than 27,700 arrests in the unrest and later released an update putting arrests at 40,879, reflecting rapidly changing tallies and conflicting counts, HRANA said.

Air France and Luxair suspended or postponed flights citing security, and Volker Türk, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, warned at a U.N. Human Rights Council session of "contradictory statements" about whether detainees may be executed, U.N. records show.