The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on nine vessels of what is known as the shadow fleet and eight related firms, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement, as Washington sought to escalate pressure on Iran over the recent killing of protesters.

State television carried statements by the Interior Ministry and the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, an official body providing services to families of those killed in wars, saying 3,117 people were killed.

The Iranian Foreign Minister warned that Iran has "no qualms" about hitting back with full force if a nation strikes over protest crackdown.

Activists say the death toll from Iran's nationwide protests has surpassed 5,000 people. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency provided the figure on Friday. The agency has been

Young protesters shot in the back, shotgun pellets fired in a doctor's face, wounded people afraid to go to hospital: "Every family has been affected" by the deadly crackdown on

The faces of hundreds of people killed during Iran’s violent crackdown on protests have been revealed in leaked photographs, the BBC reports. The images of bloodied, swollen and bruised faces were photographed and displayed in a south Tehran mortuary,