US President Donald Trump has been briefed on a range of covert and military options to target Iran, according to two Department of Defense officials.
It comes as the Islamic Republic allegedly prepares to execute the first demonstrators as part of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protestors.
The tools presented to Trump include long-range missile strikes, but Pentagon officials also presented other options, including cyber operations and psychological campaign responses, sources told CBS News.
The US president’s national security team is understood to be holding a meeting at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the approaches, but it is unclear whether Trump himself will be present.
Human rights groups have warned that the Supreme Leader’s regime has imminent plans to execute a 26-year-old demonstrator who was arrested on Saturday during a protest in Fardis, Alborz Province.
Sources told the National Union for Democracy in Iran and Iran Human Rights that the government plans to execute Erfan Soltani on Wednesday, after he was sentenced to death for taking part in the demonstrations.
Tehran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, warned on Saturday that anyone taking part in protests will be considered an ‘enemy of God,’ a death-penalty charge.
The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said 648 people have been killed during the protests, including nine under 18, but warned the death toll was probably much higher – ‘according to some estimates more than 6,000’, it said.
Thousands more have been injured while almost 10,700 people have been arrested since protests began late last year, over frustration at the collapse of the Iranian currency and economic mismanagement.
Witnesses have described how streets have turned into ‘warzones’, as security forces open fire on unarmed protestors with Kalashnikov-style assault rifles, and morgues fill up with body bags.
Flames rise from burning debris in the middle of a street in Gorgan on January 10, 2026
Sources told the National Union for Democracy in Iran and Iran Human Rights that the government plans to execute 26-year-old Erfan Soltan (pictured above) on Wednesday
US President Donald Trump (pictured above on Air Force One on Sunday) has been briefed on a range of covert and military options to target Iran
The National Union for Democracy in Iran described Soltani as a ‘young freedom-seeker’ whose ‘only crime is shouting for freedom for Iran’.
The 26-year-old has apparently been denied access to a lawyer.
‘It’s like a warzone, the streets are full of blood,’ an anonymous Iranian told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.
‘They’re taking away bodies in trucks, everyone is frightened tonight. They’re carrying out a massacre here – it’s officially a massacre.’
One of the largest nationwide demonstrations occurred on Thursday – marking the twelfth night of protests – after rallying calls from Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s deposed shah and a figure of Iran’s opposition in exile.
On Friday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned that the ‘Islamic Republic will not back down’, and ordered his security forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to violently crackdown on dissenters.
A young woman from Tehran said last Thursday felt like ‘the day of judgement’.
‘Even remote neighbourhoods of Tehran were packed with protesters – places you wouldn’t believe,’ she told the BBC.
‘But on Friday, security forces only killed and killed and killed. Seeing it with my own eyes made me so unwell that I completely lost morale. Friday was a bloody day.’
She added: ‘In war, both sides have weapons. Here, people only chant and get killed. It is a one-sided war.’
Graphic videos circulating online show dozens of bodies in a morgue on the outskirts of Iran’s capital, south of Tehran.
People with knowledge of the facility and the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency say the video shows the Kahrizak Forensic Medicine Centre.
People are seen walking by bodies in body bags laid out in a large room, attempting to identify them.
Some of the bags were seen on mortuary trollies while others were lined up on the floor.
In one video, a mother screamed while begging for her motionless child to stand up from the table.
Another video, widely shared by activists, shows people gathered around a television monitor at the morgue, looking at images of corpses’ faces.
Outside, people can be heard wailing in grief.
A mortuary worker in a cemetery in Mashhad said that prior to sunrise on Friday morning, between 180 and 200 bodies with severe head injuries arrived and were buried immediately.
Sources told the BBC that security forces demanded ‘payment for bullets’ before releasing bodies to families.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is ‘prepared for war’ but also open to negotiations with Washington.
The US president earlier said the military is looking at ‘some very strong options’ to intervene if more demonstrators were killed.
He added that Iranian leaders had called him ‘to negotiate’ but cautioned America ‘may have to act’ before a potential meeting because of the bloodshed.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that an Iranian official had contacted Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, adding that Iran’s public stance is ‘quite [different] from the messages the administration is receiving privately’.
On Monday, Ali Khamenei praised pro-government rallies in Tehran and said they came as a warning to US politicians.
‘The great Iranian nation has asserted its resolve and identity in the face of its enemies,’ he said.
‘This was a warning to American politicians to end their deceit and not rely on treacherous mercenaries.’
Many received text messages inviting people inside the country to attend the pro-government demonstrations.
Fires are lit as protesters rally on January 8, 2026 in Tehran, Iran
Protesters set fire to makeshift barricades near a religious centre during ongoing anti-regime demonstrations, January 10, 2026
Protesters dancing and cheering around a bonfire in Tehran on January 9, 2026
A protester in Tehran holding up a handwritten note asking Donald Trump for help in supporting protesters against government repression
The courtyard of the Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory Centre of Tehran Province in Kahrizak on January 12, 2026, with dozens of bodies in body bags laid out for family members
Iranians across the capital city of Tehran received text messages warning them to ‘take care of their teenagers’.
The messages, seen by Al Jazeera, could be interpreted as encouraging families not to let young people join anti-regime protesters across the city.
The message apparently reads: ‘Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.’
On Monday, Trump said on his Truth Social platform he would impose a 25 per cent tariff on goods from countries that are ‘doing business’ with Tehran, describing the order as ‘final and conclusive’.
The country is already subject to severe US sanctions and faces a collapsing currency as well as inflation that has seen food prices raised by 70 per cent.
Iranians could call abroad on mobile phones on Tuesday for the first time since communications were halted during the crackdown on nationwide protests.
Several people in Tehran were able to call The Associated Press and speak to a journalist there.
The AP bureau in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was unable to call those numbers back.
The witnesses said SMS text messaging still was down and that internet users in Iran could connect to government-approved websites locally but nothing abroad.
The witnesses gave a brief glimpse into life on the streets of the Iranian capital over the four and a half days of being cut off from the world.
They described seeing a heavy security presence in central Tehran.
Anti-riot police officers, wearing helmets and body armour, carried batons, shields, shotguns and tear gas launchers. They stood watch at major intersections.
Nearby, the witnesses saw members of the Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force, who similarly carried firearms and batons.
Security officials in plainclothes were visible in public spaces as well.
Several banks and government offices were burned during the unrest, they said.
ATMs had been smashed and banks struggled to complete transactions without the internet, the witnesses added.
However, shops were open, though there was little foot traffic in the capital. Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, where the demonstrations began December 28, was to open Tuesday.
However, a witness described speaking to multiple shopkeepers who said the security forces ordered them to reopen no matter what.
Iranian state media had not acknowledged that order. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
In an interview with CBS News, Pahlavi, son of Iran’s last shah, said Trump ‘has a decision to make fairly soon’.
He said the current Iranian regime was ‘trying to trick the world into thinking that [it] is ready to negotiate once again’.
He described the US president as ‘a man that means what he says and says what he means’ and who ‘knows what’s at stake’.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday that Iran’s regime was living out its last days.
‘When a regime can only hold on to power through violence, then it is effectively finished,’ Merz told reporters in Bengaluru during a visit to India.
‘I believe that we are now witnessing the last days and weeks of this regime.’
Iran’s leaders have ‘no legitimacy’ as they were not elected by the people and the population was now ‘rising up’, Merz said, adding: ‘I hope that there is a way to end this conflict peacefully.’
He said Berlin was in contact with the United States and other European governments with the aim of ensuring ‘that there can be a peaceful transition to a democratic government in Iran’.
Sparked by economic grievances, the nationwide protests have grown into one of the biggest challenges yet to the theocratic system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution ousted the shah.