DUBAI, United Arab Emirates â Iran's top prosecutor on Friday called U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated claims that he halted the hangings of 800 detained protesters there "completely false." Meanwhile, the overall death toll from a bloody crackdown on nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 5,002, activists said.
Activists fear many more are dead. They struggle to confirm information as the most comprehensive internet blackout in Iran's history has crossed the two-week mark.
People walk at Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Jan. 20, in Iran.
Tensions remain high between the United States and Iran as an American aircraft carrier group moves closer to the Middle East, something Trump likened to an "armada" in comments to journalists late Thursday.
Analysts say a military buildup could give Trump the option to carry out strikes, though so far he's avoided that despite repeated warnings to Tehran. The mass execution of prisoners had been one of his red lines for military force â the other being the killing of peaceful demonstrators.
"While President Trump now appears to have backtracked, likely under pressure from regional leaders and cognizant that airstrikes alone would be insufficient to implode the regime, military assets continue to be moved into the region, indicating kinetic action may still happen," New York-based think tank the Soufan Center said in an analysis Friday.
Prosecutor denies Trump claim
Trump has repeatedly said Iran halted the execution of 800 people detained in the protests, without elaborating on the source of the claim. On Friday, Iran's top prosecutor Mohammad Movahedi strongly denied that in comments carried by the judiciary's Mizan news agency.
"This claim is completely false; no such number exists, nor has the judiciary made any such decision," Movahedi said.
His remarks suggested that Iran's Foreign Ministry, led by Abbas Araghchi, may have offered that figure to Trump. Araghchi has had a direct line to U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and conducted multiple rounds of negotiations over Iran's nuclear program with him.
"We have a separation of powers, the responsibilities of each institution are clearly defined, and we do not, under any circumstances, take instructions from foreign powers," Movahedi said.
Judiciary officials have called some of those being held "mohareb" â or "enemies of God." That charge carries the death penalty. It had been used along with others to carry out mass executions in 1988 that reportedly killed at least 5,000 people.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Javad Haji Ali Akbari, the Friday prayer leader in Tehran, mocked Trump as a "yellow-faced, yellow-haired and disgraced man" who is "like a dog that only barks."
"That foolish man has resorted to threatening the nation, especially over what he said about Iran's leader," the cleric said in comments aired by Iranian state radio. "If any harm were to occur, all your interests and bases in the region would become clear and precise targets of Iranian forces."
People walk at Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Jan. 20, in Iran.
Death toll rises
The latest death toll was given by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which reported that 4,716 of the dead were demonstrators, 203 were government-affiliated, 43 were children and 40 were civilians not taking part in the protests. It added that more than 26,800 people had been detained in a widening arrest campaign by authorities.
The group's figures have been accurate in previous unrest in Iran and rely on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths. That death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran's government offered its first death toll Wednesday, saying 3,117 people were killed. It added that 2,427 of the dead in the demonstrations that began Dec. 28 were civilians and security forces, with the rest being "terrorists." In the past, Iran's theocracy has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.
The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll, in part because of authorities cutting access to the internet and blocking international calls into the country.
US warships on the move
The American military meanwhile has moved more military assets toward the Mideast, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and associated warships traveling with it from the South China Sea.
A U.S. Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements, said Thursday that the Lincoln strike group is in the Indian Ocean.
Trump said Thursday aboard Air Force One that the U.S. is moving the ships toward Iran "just in case" he wants to take action.
"We have a massive fleet heading in that direction and maybe we won't have to use it," Trump said.
Trump also mentioned the multiple rounds of talks that American officials had with Iran over its nuclear program prior to Israel launching a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in June, which saw U.S. warplanes bomb Iranian nuclear sites. He threatened Iran with military action that would make earlier U.S. strikes against its uranium enrichment sites "look like peanuts."
"They should have made a deal before we hit them," Trump said.
The U.K. Defense Ministry separately said that its joint Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet squadron with Qatar, 12 Squadron, "deployed to the (Persian) Gulf for defensive purposes noting regional tensions."
Iran shows off drones in Israel threat
Iran commemorated "the Day of the Guardian" on Friday, an annual event for its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which was key in putting down the nationwide protests.
To mark the day, an Iranian state television channel aired a typically religious talk show Thursday night that instead saw its cleric and prayer singers look at Iranian military drones. They fired up the engines of several of the Shahed drones, one version of which has been used extensively by Russia in its war on Ukraine.
A man identified as a member of the security forces, who wore a surgical mask and sunglasses during the telecast to hide his identity, also made a threat in mangled Hebrew toward Israel, trying to say: "We are closer to you than you think."
People rally around the world in support of protests in Iran, in photos
Protesters participate in a demonstration in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Activists take part in a rally supporting protesters in Iran at Lafayette Park, across from the White House in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Activists carrying a photograph of Reza Pahlavi take part in a rally supporting protesters in Iran at Lafayette Park, across from the White House, in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Shiite Muslims chant slogan during a protest against U.S. and show solidarity with Iran in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
A protester holds a burning poster of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally in support of the nationwide mass demonstrations in Iran against the government, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Protesters burn the Iranian national flag during a rally in support of the nationwide mass demonstrations in Iran against the government in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Protesters hold placards during a rally in support of the nationwide mass demonstrations in Iran against the government in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Protesters hold placards during a rally in support of the nationwide mass demonstrations in Iran against the government in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Protesters participate in a demonstration in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Shops are closed during protests in Tehran's centuries-old main bazaar, Iran, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
Protesters participate in a demonstration in Berlin, Germany, in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Protesters participate in a demonstration in Berlin, Germany, in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media shows protesters dancing and cheering around a bonfire as they take to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
People hold up photos of Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, during a small demonstration, in Istanbul, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
A woman, with her face painted with the colors of Iran's flag, joins with others during a small demonstration, in Istanbul, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
