President Donald Trump said late Thursday that a large naval force was heading to Iran, continuing his threats of U.S. military action against the government nearly a month after protests erupted across the country.

“We’re watching Iran,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we’ll see what happens,” he added, describing the force as an “armada.”

Trump had appeared to back away from threats to strike Iran, saying he had received assurances that detained protesters there would not be executed. Leaders across the Middle East had also warned Trump that a military confrontation could destabilize the region.

Last week, the Pentagon ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and three Tomahawk-missile-firing destroyers in the South China Sea to head to the Middle East, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.

US Beefing up Strike Aircraft Numbers

The Air Force in the past week also sent a dozen F-15E fighters to the region to beef up the strike aircraft numbers, according to the officials.

The Iranian government said this week that it had quelled anti-government protests, which erupted late last month.

On Thursday, Trump said his threats of intervention had stopped more than 830 executions from taking place, mostly of young men, though Iran’s prosecutor general, Mohammad Movahedi, denied that.

“This claim is completely false; neither does such a number exist, nor has the judiciary made such a decision,” Movahedi said Friday, according to the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency.

Some Iranian officials previously said that rioters would be considered “enemies of God,” a charge that could carry the death penalty.

The Iranian government has instituted a severe digital and communications blackout, limiting the flow of information out of the country. It was not clear whether any executions had taken place.

The demonstrations began in response to a collapsing currency and economy that have pushed many Iranians into hardship.

Protest Spread Across the Country

As the protests spread across the country, they were seen as a direct challenge to Iran’s clerical rulers, who have held power for nearly half a century.

The authorities responded with a deadly crackdown, with eyewitness reports of security forces shooting demonstrators at close range. Officials branded demonstrators “rioters” and “terrorists,” saying they were backed by foreign powers.

Iranian state television said this week that more than 3,100 people had been killed. But human rights groups monitoring the unrest have said the toll is significantly higher.

Human Rights Activists in Iran, a Washington group, said Thursday that over 5,000 people had been killed so far, while the Norwegian group Iran Human Rights put the figure over 3,400.

As the demonstrations gained momentum, Trump said on Jan. 2 that the United States was “locked and loaded” to protect Iranian protesters, and he later urged them to take over government institutions.

On Thursday, Trump told the reporters on Air Force One that he had warned the Iranian government, “If you hang those people, you are going to be hit harder than you’ve ever been hit,” adding that the assault would make previous attacks on Iran’s nuclear program “look like peanuts.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Abdi Latif Dahir/Arash Khamooshi
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