Iranian security forces gun down amateur boxer as father searches morgues for missing son: source
An Iranian amateur boxer was shot and killed by Iranian security forces during ongoing anti-regime protests near Tehran, and his father spent a week searching before identifying his body in a black body bag.
Harrowing footage circulating online shows his distraught father desperately searching among piles of bodies covered with black body bags, crying out for his missing son.
Sepehr Ebrahimi, 19, was killed on Jan. 11 in the Andisheh area, approximately 19 miles west of Tehran’s city center, according to Iranian opposition sources.
“Sepehr was shot and killed in Tehran,” Ali Safavi, a senior official with the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), told Fox News Digital.
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Video shared on social media, which was viewed by Fox News Digital, shows Ebrahimi’s father calling out his son’s name as he searches a warehouse filled with unidentified bodies following a violent crackdown on demonstrators.
“My dear Sepehr, where are you?” the father can be heard crying. At one point, he shouts, “Damn Khamenei. They have killed the children of so many people. You killed so many young people!”
According to Safavi, Ebrahimi was shot with live ammunition by Iran’s security forces during protests against the clerical regime.
His family spent an agonizing week searching through morgues, hospitals and detention facilities before finally identifying his body among piles of corpses, also shown in the viral footage.
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The killing comes amid ongoing demonstrations across Iran, as anger continues to simmer over political repression, economic hardship and human rights abuses.
Ebrahimi’s death has also renewed attention on the case of another Iranian boxer, Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, who is on death row.
Vafaei Sani, now 30, is a champion boxer who was arrested in 2020 for participating in nationwide pro-democracy protests.
Iranian authorities accused him of supporting the opposition group the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK).
He has spent five years in prison, during which he has reportedly been tortured and held in prolonged solitary confinement, according to rights organizations.
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In 2023, more than 100 human rights experts and international organizations sent a letter to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, urging urgent intervention to stop Vafaei Sani’s execution.
His death sentence echoes the case of Iranian wrestling champion Navid Afkari, who was executed in September 2020.
Meanwhile, the death of Ebrahimi and others come as Iran’s protest-related death toll continues to rise.
According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), at least 6,126 people have been killed since the start of the latest wave of protests.
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HRANA also reported that 214 government-affiliated forces and 49 civilians have also been killed, while more than 17,000 deaths remain under investigation.
Trump says Iran called ‘numerous’ times to make deal as carrier enters Middle East waters
President Donald Trump said Iran appears to be looking to negotiate with the U.S. amid a growing military buildup in the Middle East.
In a Monday interview with Axios, Trump suggested that Tehran had reached out on “numerous occasions” and “want[s] to make a deal.”
“They want to make a deal. I know so. They called on numerous occasions. They want to talk,” the president told the outlet.
According to U.S. officials, also cited by Axios, any potential agreement would need Tehran to remove all enriched uranium, cap its long-range missile stockpile, a change in support for regional proxy forces, and cease independent uranium enrichment, terms Iranian leaders have not agreed to.
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Trump also described the situation with Iran as “in flux,” and pointed to the arrival of what he called “a big armada next to Iran. Bigger than Venezuela,” referencing the recent deployment of U.S. naval assets.
As previously reported by Fox News Digital, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier entered CENTCOM waters in the Indian Ocean on Monday amid increasing threats from Iran, a senior U.S. official said.
Trump had told reporters Jan. 21, “We have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we’ll see what happens. We have a big force going towards Iran. I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely.”
The U.S. military buildup comes amid widespread unrest inside Iran following protests that began Dec. 28.
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According to a recent report from Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the confirmed death toll from the protests has reached 5,848, with an additional 17,091 deaths under investigation.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been sheltering in a fortified underground facility, according to Iran International.
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Trump is expected to hold further consultations this week, Axios said, before adding that White House officials said an attack is still on the table.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
GOP lawmakers split on US military intervention to fulfill Trump’s calls for regime change in Iran
Republicans are split on whether President Donald Trump should use military force in Iran to bring about the regime change he has called for.
While some Republicans would trust Trump to pull the trigger and stand ready to back him, others urged the administration to use force as a last resort.
Across the board, lawmakers said change is coming to Iran one way or the other. Rep. Mark Messmer, R-Ind., believes that with American economic and diplomatic pressure, it’s only a matter of time.
“It’s going to happen,” Messmer said.
IRAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARD COMMANDER SAYS REGIME HAS ‘FINGER ON THE TRIGGER’ AS US WARSHIPS HEAD TO MIDDLE EAST
“I think eventually the regime is not going to be able to keep a thumb on their people,” Messmer said.
The U.S. on Monday deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln to U.S. Central Command waters in the Indian Ocean, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke to Fox News on Monday. The move comes as Tehran’s government carried out a brutal crackdown in the country that left thousands dead earlier this month.
In its wake, Trump condemned the killing and called for regime change in Iran. Trump described a conversation with Iranian envoys, warning them about the consequences that would follow if they failed to stop the killings. “I said, ‘If you hang those people, you’re going to be hit harder than you’ve ever been hit,'” Trump said.
Questions remain about whether the president may see some form of American intervention as a way to precipitate that change amid the ongoing unrest.
Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, trusts Trump’s decision-making process and believes that the U.S. would be acting consistently with its own interests to apply military power in toppling Iran’s current government.
“You know what, I trust President Trump, I trust our military,” Babin said.
“It is time for a regime change. There was a red line established by President Trump. He means what he says, and he says what he means in plain English,” Babin said, referring to warnings Trump made to Iran’s leadership about killing protesters.
“I would not want to be one of the ayatollah’s brutal henchmen mowing down and brutalizing, torturing their own people,” Babin said.
Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., agreed with Babin, framing his stance as a way the U.S. could eliminate terror threats well beyond just Iran.
“Iran is the center of terrorism. They’ll fund anyone who goes against Israel and who goes against the United States of America. So, if you don’t think I would be for strategically bombing the leadership of the dictatorship that runs Iran, you would be mistaken,” Meuser said.
LINDSEY GRAHAM CALLS FOR US TO USE ‘ANY MEANS NECESSARY’ TO STOP THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE KILLING OF IRANIANS
Other lawmakers urged more caution.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., believes force should come as a last resort.
“That should be the last option, but it needs to be taken as it comes right now. We need to actually understand the dynamics of why it would require military intervention,” Malliotakis said.
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Messmer believes that a change in leadership should come from the ground up.
“It really needs to come organically from the people of Iran. I mean, I think that, obviously, with the protests we’re seeing on the streets in Iran, there’s a high degree of interest. But at some point, they’ve got to take ownership and leadership,” Messmer said.
“Boots on the ground, you know, foreign intervention and costly overseas wars have been borne out to be pretty ineffective in the long run,” Messmer added.
Although lawmakers varied on their stances on military force, they all noted it wouldn’t be the first time Trump has ordered strikes on the country.
Rep. Rudy Yakym, R-Ind., believes Trump has proved that’s an option he’s willing to use when it comes to Tehran.
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“The president has long said that Iran could never have access to a nuclear weapon. Look at the decisive leadership that the president took against Iran to ensure that their access to nuclear weapons would be denied,” Yakym said, referring to the June 2025 American strike on Iran’s Fordow base, a nuclear enrichment facility Trump destroyed.
“And certainly, as we go forward, we will stand with the people of Iran,” Yakym added.
Iran regime reportedly issued nationwide shoot-to-kill orders as protest death toll surges
More and more brutal evidence of the Iranian regime’s crackdown on its own people is circulating online, as the true number of those killed in Iran’s protests remains hotly contested amid internet blackouts and state intimidation. Estimates range from the thousands confirmed dead to the tens of thousands feared killed, according to activists, media reports and medical data.
Fatemeh Jamalpour, an Iranian journalist who has covered every major protest movement over the past two decades, said the latest crackdown represents a turning point in the regime’s use of force. “The regime’s level of violence has increased dramatically, and with the internet crackdown, it is difficult to know the true scale of the killing.”
“The new thing I have seen in these protests, something we have not seen before, is that starting on the night of January 8, the regime issued shoot-to-kill orders to the IRGC, the Basij and the riot police, authorizing direct fire,” Jamalpour told Fox News Digital.
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“In previous protests, military-grade weapons were used mainly in minority provinces such as Kurdistan and Baluchestan,” she added. “This time they were used across the entire country… Health Ministry officials told us they ran out-of-body bags for the dead.”
The most widely cited baseline comes from the Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, a U.S.-based group that tracks deaths by name and location.
As of January 25, HRANA reported 5,848 people confirmed killed. Of these, 5,520 were protesters, 77 were children under 18, 209 were government-affiliated forces and 42 were non-protesters or civilians. The number of deaths still under investigation stands at 17,091.
The group has emphasized that its confirmed tally reflects only cases that could be independently documented, and that its overall figures are expected to rise as information continues to emerge.
According to The Associated Press, Iranian authorities have offered only one official count, 3,117, and have not updated it publicly in the last five days. Authorities have not released names, locations, or documentation to support that figure.
Beyond human rights tallies, a separate medical working paper reviewed by Fox News Digital suggests the death toll may be far higher.
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The report by Munich Med Group, authored by professor Dr. Amir-Mobarez Parasta, compiles hospital-registered fatalities from multiple Iranian cities and applies what the author describes as a conservative extrapolation model to account for underreporting during the communications blackout.
Using that methodology, the paper estimates a nationwide death toll of approximately 33,130 people as of January 23. The author stresses the figure is not a verified count, but a lower-bound estimate based on partial medical data and stated assumptions.
Iran International published its own investigation, claiming it reviewed documents indicating that more than 36,500 people were killed during two days of protests on January 8 and 9 alone. The outlet said the documents were provided by sources inside Iran, but the claims have not been independently verified.
KHAMENEI CALLS TRUMP A ‘CRIMINAL,’ BLAMES HIM FOR DEADLY PROTESTS SWEEPING IRAN
The wide gap between confirmed counts and higher estimates reflects not only the scale of violence, but also the conditions under which it occurred.
According to Jamalpour, despite the internet shutdown, doctors and medical workers attempted to document what they were seeing using limited satellite connections.
“Many doctors and medical staff tried to send us their accounts and documentation through small Starlink connections,” she said. “Medical workers say protesters were often shot in the head and neck, with intent to kill. Many were killed by multiple bullets. Some were shot from behind while trying to flee.”
Jamalpour said the victims she documented reflected a generation the regime appeared determined to crush. “Among the dead are children and a 67-year-old man, but most are young people under 30,” she said.
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Jamalpour described the killing of Mehdi Khanmohammadi, a 67-year-old retired army colonel and pilot. “He was killed on Friday, January 9, in Saadat Abad by two bullets,” she said. “In a video, his daughter stands over his lifeless body and says, ‘Can you open your eyes and wake up?’”
She said scenes like that have left the country in collective mourning. “These days, Iranians are in shock,” Jamalpour said. “There is grief everywhere.”
At the same time, she warned that the crackdown is far from over. “Lawyers and human rights organizations are deeply concerned about more than 20,000 protesters who have been detained and are at risk of execution,” she said.
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Yet even amid the fear, Jamalpour said she hears something new inside Iran. “In my conversations from inside the country, I hear people’s hope for Trump’s help in freeing Iran,” she said. “And a determination to change the regime, now intertwined with anger and grief.”
Zelenskyy says US security guarantees document is ‘100% ready’ for signing
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a long-anticipated document on U.S. security guarantees is “100% ready” for signing, with Kyiv now waiting for its American partners to confirm the date and place before the agreement moves to ratification in both the U.S. Congress and the Ukrainian parliament.
“For us, security guarantees are first and foremost guarantees of security from the United States. The document is 100% ready,” Zelenskyy said Sunday at a joint press conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, with the presidents of Lithuania and Poland, according to a translation of his remarks from Reuters.
Zelenskyy reiterated at the press conference that Ukraine views membership in the European Union as another core security guarantee and is aiming to join the bloc by 2027, the Ukrainian president’s office said in a statement on its website.
His remarks come after Ukraine, Russia and the United States held trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi for two days over the weekend.
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Zelenskyy said on X that the discussions, which involved political and military representatives from all three sides, were “constructive” and focused on potential parameters for ending his country’s war with Russia.
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The talks in the United Arab Emirates followed a meeting in Moscow on Thursday between Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and head of the Federal Acquisition Service Josh Gruenbaum.
Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said the “extremely frank” discussions lasted roughly four hours and included U.S. officials updating Moscow on their recent conversations with Ukrainian and European leaders, according to a summary of the meeting from the Kremlin.
Territorial issues remain a key obstacle in the negotiations, with Moscow pressing Kyiv to relinquish parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region that Russian forces do not fully control.
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U.S. officials told Axios that negotiations examined the full range of unresolved issues, from Russia’s territorial demands in the Donbas to control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and potential steps to prevent a return to fighting.
Another U.S. official told the outlet a second round of talks is scheduled to take place on Feb. 1.
USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier Strike Group makes move amid threat from Iran
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier has entered CENTCOM waters in the Indian Ocean amid increasing threats from Iran, a senior U.S. official told Fox News on Monday.
Reports say Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has gone underground, suggesting the country may be preparing for military action. A leading U.S. drone expert told Fox on Sunday that Iran’s drone swarms would pose a credible and serious threat to the Lincoln and its strike group.
The top U.S. official said the Lincoln was not yet ready for any possible future strikes against Iran.
Cameron Chell, CEO and co-founder of Draganfly, told Fox that Iran has created “an effective asymmetric threat against highly sophisticated military systems” with its fleet of unmanned drones, pairing “low-cost warheads with inexpensive delivery platforms.”
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Chell said Iran can launch large numbers of relatively unsophisticated drones directly at naval vessels, creating saturation attacks that could overwhelm traditional defenses.
“If hundreds are launched in a short period of time, some are almost certain to get through,” Chell said.
“Modern defense systems were not originally designed to counter that kind of saturation attack. For U.S. surface vessels operating near Iran, warships are prime targets,” he added.
IRAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARD COMMANDER SAYS REGIME HAS ‘FINGER ON THE TRIGGER’ AS US WARSHIPS HEAD TO MIDDLE EAST
U.S. officials say Washington is reinforcing its military posture in response to growing instability inside Iran, boosting its presence by air, land and sea, while closely monitoring developments in Syria.
A squadron of F-15 fighter jets has deployed to the region, and C-17 aircraft carrying heavy equipment have arrived.
Chell noted that U.S. and allied militaries are rapidly developing defenses but uncertainty over new capabilities on the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier groups for managing multiple Iranian drones flying in formation remains. He emphasized that Iran’s drone fleet is a concern.
“These drones give Iran a very credible way to threaten surface vessels,” he said. “U.S. assets in the region are large, slow-moving and easily identifiable on radar, which makes them targetable.”
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“Iran’s strength lies instead in these low-cost, high-volume drone systems — particularly one-way strike drones designed to fly into a target and detonate,” he said.
Iranian drone swarms pose ‘credible threat’ to USS Abraham Lincoln carrier group, defense expert says
U.S. military assets headed to the Middle East could face a serious threat from Iranian drone swarms as reports emerge that Iran’s supreme leader has gone underground, according to a leading military drone expert.
Cameron Chell, CEO and co-founder of Draganfly, warned that Iran’s growing reliance on low-cost unmanned systems poses a credible danger to high-value U.S. naval assets, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group.
“Iran’s drone capabilities are worth well into the tens of millions of dollars,” Chell told Fox News Digital.
“By pairing low-cost warheads with inexpensive delivery platforms, essentially remotely piloted aircraft, Iran has developed an effective asymmetric threat against highly sophisticated military systems.”
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Chell said Iran can launch large numbers of relatively unsophisticated drones directly at naval vessels, creating saturation attacks that could overwhelm traditional defenses.
“If hundreds are launched in a short period of time, some are almost certain to get through,” Chell said.
“Modern defense systems were not originally designed to counter that kind of saturation attack. For U.S. surface vessels operating near Iran, warships are prime targets.”
The warning comes as a senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News Digital that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group had not yet crossed into U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility in the Indian Ocean.
“It is close, but technically not in CENTCOM yet,” the source said. This would indicate the carrier strike group is not yet in a position to strike Iran.
U.S. officials say Washington is reinforcing its military posture in response to growing instability inside Iran, boosting its presence by air, land and sea, while closely monitoring developments in Syria.
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A squadron of F-15 fighter jets has deployed to the region, and C-17 aircraft carrying heavy equipment have arrived.
Once the aircraft carrier strike group enters the CENTCOM area of operations, which should be soon, it will still take several days before the strike is fully on station.
Chell noted that U.S. and allied militaries are rapidly developing defenses but uncertainty over new capabilities on the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier groups for managing multiple Iranian drones flying in formation remains. He emphasized that Iran’s drone fleet is a concern.
“These drones give Iran a very credible way to threaten surface vessels,” he said. “U.S. assets in the region are large, slow-moving and easily identifiable on radar, which makes them targetable.”
“Iran’s strength lies instead in these low-cost, high-volume drone systems—particularly one-way strike drones designed to fly into a target and detonate.”
Chell explained that Iran gained an early advantage in what are known as Category One and Category Two drone systems—low-cost platforms that can be produced in large numbers and used effectively in asymmetric warfare.
IRAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARD COMMANDER SAYS REGIME HAS ‘FINGER ON THE TRIGGER’ AS US WARSHIPS HEAD TO MIDDLE EAST
“Category Three systems are a completely different matter,” he said. “In that area, Iran is decades behind the United States.”
The U.S. military buildup coincides with widespread unrest inside Iran. Protests erupted Dec. 28 amid mounting public discontent.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said the casualty figures had reached 5,459 as of Sunday, with 17,031 cases under investigation.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been reported to have moved into a fortified underground shelter in Tehran after senior officials assessed an increased risk of a potential U.S. strike, according to reports.
President Donald Trump also addressed the deployment on Jan. 21, telling reporters, “We have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we’ll see what happens. We have a big force going towards Iran. I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely.”