U.S. warships approach Iran amid reports of widespread brutality by ayatollah’s security forces

A key Iranian military commander warned President Trump that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is ready to fight — “finger on the trigger” — if the U.S. attacks the Islamic regime.

Gen. Mohammad Pakpour delivered the defiant remarks as U.S. warships headed toward Iran amid shocking reports that Iranian security forces, including Gen. Pakpour’s Revolutionary Guard, killed or executed at least 40,000 anti-regime protesters on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9 — a death toll much higher than international observers had originally feared.

Mr. Trump said Thursday that an “armada” of U.S. warships had been dispatched to Iran after he had warned the regime to stop killing protesters.

So many people were killed by Iranian authorities during the two-day purge that it became nearly impossible for the country’s health services to keep up, according to reports Sunday.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the Supreme National Security Council to “show no mercy” to protesters and gave police full authority to use lethal force, according to reporting from The New York Times.

The Iranian Ministry of Health recorded more than 30,000 deaths, but global human rights groups have put the total closer to 40,000, according to reporting from The Associated Press.

Dozens of videos and witness accounts also released over the past two weeks have reported security forces using automatic weapons, tear gas and batons on crowds of protesters. Military trucks with mounted machine guns and rooftop sniper nests were seen firing into demonstrators.

Some accounts describe protesters wounded during demonstrations being herded onto cargo trucks and transported to forensic morgues instead of hospitals, where they were then summarily executed by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel.

Professor Amir Mobarez Parasta, a German-Iranian medical expert who is investigating the crackdown on Jan. 8 and 9, said several wounded protesters were found alive inside body bags and that many of those who died never received medical care or arrived at hospitals.

Wounded protesters who were taken to medical facilities were met with overburdened staff, with some accounts recording piles of bodies lining hospital corridors. Other witnesses describe patients being forcibly removed from hospital beds by IRGC personnel with medical equipment still attached to their bodies.

Tehran has blamed the nationwide protest movement on foreign agitators and rioters.

A near-total internet blackout in Iran, maintained for more than two weeks, has made it difficult to independently verify a precise death toll.

U.S. military officials have indicated that an aircraft carrier strike group would be in the area within days, but it’s unclear what kind of action the Trump administration intends to take, if any.

“We have a big flotilla going in that direction,” Mr. Trump told reporters Thursday on Air Force One. “We have a big force going toward Iran. I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely.”

The movement of U.S. forces interrupted a period of relative calm after Mr. Trump’s announcement that Iran had agreed to cancel the executions of more than 800 prisoners arrested during the protests.

Reports indicate that Tehran’s crackdown may have quelled the widespread protests, at least for now. Independent observers have not recorded any large-scale demonstrations in Iran for several days.

Mr. Trump has warned Tehran to halt its crackdown on protesters or face military intervention. He also urged demonstrators to take control over their governmental institutions and promised that “help is on the way!”

Amid the tensions, a steady stream of diplomatic voices from the Middle East reportedly urged Mr. Trump not to intervene in Iran, arguing that a U.S. military strike could spark a greater regional conflict.

Iranian officials have not confirmed that it halted the executions of arrested protesters because of U.S. pressure. On Friday, Tehran’s top prosecutor, Mohammad Movahed, publicly denied Mr. Trump’s claim that Iran had halted the executions, calling it “completely false.”

The Pentagon said the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group changed its course from the South China Sea to the Middle East and was expected in the waters near Iran by the end of the weekend.

The group maintains Arleigh Burke-class destroyers equipped with Tomahawk missiles, which could hit valuable military targets deep in Iran.

Many of the vessels in the strike group are also equipped with the Aegis Combat System, which can track and destroy incoming ballistic missiles, among other threats.

Iran has repeatedly insisted that it would retaliate if the U.S. launches military strikes.

Top IRGC military commander Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi said Thursday that all U.S. bases in the region would be ”legitimate targets” for retaliation if the U.S. went ahead with strikes.

On Sunday, Iran’s Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization released a propaganda video showing how the Fattah ballistic missile could destroy the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group if the U.S. strikes.

During the height of Iran’s protest crackdown earlier this month, the Pentagon began transferring personnel out of the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which houses around 10,000 troops. Iran previously launched a retaliatory strike against the Qatari base after the U.S. conducted strikes on three of Iran’s fortified nuclear enrichment sites in June.

The ayatollah echoed Mr. Aliabadi’s statement on Saturday in an X post, saying he does not intend to lead Iran into a war with the U.S.

“However, we will not just let go of the criminals inside the country either. Worse than the internal criminals are the international criminals! We will not let go of them either,” Mr. Khamenei wrote.