IRAN’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests has killed at least 6,126 people, with many more feared dead, activists said yesterday, as a US aircraft carrier group arrived in the Middle East.

The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and accompanying guided missile destroyers give the United States the capability to strike Iran, particularly as Gulf Arab states have signalled they want to stay out of any attack despite hosting US forces.

The Houthis and Hezbollah have meanwhile signalled their readiness to launch new attacks, potentially backing Iran after US President Donald Trump threatened military action over the killing of peaceful protesters or possible mass executions following the unrest.

Iran has repeatedly warned it could drag the region into war, though its military remains weakened after Israel’s June assault.

Pressure on the economy may further inflame unrest, especially as everyday goods become unaffordable.

The rial has fallen to a record low of 1.5 million to the dollar.

The latest death figures were released by the US-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 at least 5,777 protesters had been killed, alongside 214 government-affiliated forces, 86 children and 49 non-protesters.

More than 41,800 people have been arrested, it said.

Iran’s government has put the death toll at 3,117, describing many of the dead as “terrorists,” though it has a history of under-reporting casualties.

The scale of the crackdown exceeds any unrest in decades and recalls the violence surrounding the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Protests began on December 28 after the currency collapse and spread nationwide, met with force during a two-week internet blackout.

They were met by a violent crackdown by the Iranian regime, the scale of which is only starting to become clear as the country has faced more than two weeks of internet blackout.

Iran’s UN ambassador told a UN security council meeting late Monday that Mr Trump’s repeated threats to use military force against the country “are neither ambiguous nor misinterpreted.”

Amir Saeid Iravani also repeated claims that the US leader incited violence by “armed terrorist groups” supported by the United States and Israel.

The country’s ailing economy is still being squeezed by international sanctions, particularly over its nuclear programme.