The death toll from Iran’s nationwide protests has surpassed 5,100, according to a U.S.-based Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA) on Saturday.

The group is investigating 12,904 further cases, while at least 7,402 more people are said to have been seriously injured.

The activists pointed out that evaluating and verifying death tolls is taking time, with internet shutdowns and disruptions slowing the process. The exact extent of the violence therefore remains unclear.

Official reports suggest 3,117 people died in the riots, while the Iranian ambassador to Switzerland claimed more than 2,400 people were killed in "terrorist activities."

The protests broke out at the end of December, triggered by the severe economic crisis in the country. Traders were the first to take to the streets and mass protests broke out in the major cities on Jan. 8 and 9, before being suppressed.

The leadership in Tehran has portrayed the protests as a foreign conspiracy, blaming its arch-enemies Israel and the United States for the thousands of deaths.

The Iranian military has also stepped up its rhetoric in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that a "massive fleet" was on its way to waters near the Middle Eastern country.

The commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Major General Mohammad Pakpour responded by saying that the Iranian armed forces had their "finger on the trigger."

Nournews, a news outlet close to Iran's Supreme National Security Council, reported on its Telegram channel that the commander, Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, warned the United States and Israel "to avoid any miscalculation."

"The Islamic Revolutionary Guards and dear Iran stand more ready than ever, finger on the trigger, to execute the orders and directives of the Commander-in-Chief," Nournews quoted Pakpour as saying.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned Tehran, setting two red lines for the use of military force: the killing of peaceful demonstrators and the mass execution of people arrested in the protests.

Trump has repeatedly said Iran halted the execution of 800 people detained in the protests. He has not elaborated on the source of the claim - which Iran's top prosecutor, Mohammad Movahedi, strongly denied Friday in comments carried by the judiciary's Mizan news agency.

On Thursday, Trump said aboard Air Force One that the U.S. was moving warships 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.

A U.S. Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements, said Thursday that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other warships traveling with it were in the Indian Ocean.

Trump also mentioned the multiple rounds of talks American officials had with Iran over its nuclear program before Israel launched a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in June, which also saw U.S. warplanes bomb Iranian nuclear sites. He threatened Iran with military action that would make earlier U.S. strikes against Iranian uranium enrichment sites "look like peanuts."

"They should have made a deal before we hit them," Trump said.

The tension has led at least two European airlines to suspend some flights to the wider region.