Protests raged across Iran this week as the Ayatollah regime led its bloodiest crackdown since coming into power in 1979. US President Donald Trump has been vocal in his criticism of the crackdown and recently warned that an American armada ‘was on its way’. Iran has now responded in no uncertain terms — warning that it would consider any attack as a trigger for “all-out war”.
“This military buildup – we hope it is not intended for real confrontation – but our military is ready for the worst-case scenario. This is why everything is on high alert in Iran. This time we will treat any attack – limited, unlimited, surgical, kinetic, whatever they call it – as an all-out war against us, and we will respond in the hardest way possible to settle this,” a senior Iranian official told Reuters.
US armada heads to Iran
Trump claimed on Thursday that the United States had an “armada” heading toward Iran amidst the continued protests. He also voiced hope that it would not be used while renewing warnings for Tehran to stop killing protesters or restarting its nuclear program.
“We have a lot of ships going that direction, just in case. I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely … we have an armada … heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it,” reports quoted him as saying from Air Force One while returning from the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Iran has repeatedly warned that it will respond to any such attack. He declined to specify what an Iranian response might look like.
“If the Americans violate Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, we will respond. A country under constant military threat from the United States has no option but to ensure that everything at its disposal can be used to push back and, if possible, restore balance against anyone who dares to attack Iran,” the Iranian official told Reuters.
Iran continues bloody crackdown
The bloodiest crackdown on dissent since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution has gradually come into focus — despite authorities cutting people off from the internet and much of the wider world. According to an AP report, cities and towns smell of smoke as fire-damaged mosques and government offices line streets. Banks have been torched and their ATMs smashed.
An Associated Press tally of reports by the state-run IRNA news agency from over 20 cities suggests the damage to be at least $125 million. The number of dead demonstrators reported by activists also continues to swell.
Videos show Basij (the Iranian Guard’s volunteer arm) holding long guns, batons and pellet guns. Anti-riot police can be seen wearing helmets and body armour, carrying assault rifles and submachine guns. There is also footage of police firing shotguns into crowds, something authorities deny despite corpses showing wounds consistent with metal birdshot. Scores have reportedly suffered blinding eye wounds from birdshot — something seen in the protests around the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini.
For two weeks, Iran offered no overall casualty figures. Then on Wednesday, the government said 3,117 people were killed, including 2,427 civilians and security forces. That left another 690 dead that deputy interior minister Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian identified as “terrorists.” That conflicts with figures from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which put the death toll on Saturday at 5,137, based on activists inside Iran verifying fatalities against public records and witness statements.
The killing of peaceful protesters — as well as the threat of mass executions — has been a red line for military action for US President Donald Trump. And as an American aircraft carrier and warships approach, the risk of a new middleastern war continues to grow.