Iran has now been under a total internet blackout for over 100 hours, as anti-government protests and brutal crackdowns continue to escalate into their third week across the Islamic Republic.

President Donald J. Trump was briefed late Monday by his national security team on a wide array of military options for Iran, including cyber and psychological operations, two defense officials tell CBS News.

The U.S. Department of Defense is presenting President Donald J. Trump with a wide-range of strike options against Iran, in response to the ongoing brutal crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests, with options including potential strikes against Iran’s nuclear program, beyond last June’s strikes against three underground nuclear-enrichment facilities, an official told the New York Times.

However, the narrower options, a cyberattack or a strike against Iran’s domestic security apparatus, which is responsible for using lethal force against protesters during recent demonstrations in Tehran and other major cities, are more likely, the official said. Any attack is at least several days away, and could prompt a vigorous retaliation against American troops and bases in the Middle East from Iran.

Kari Lake, Senior Advisor to the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) under President Trump, has blocked Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from using a powerful transmitter operated by the USAGM in Kuwait to broadcast news and protest updates into Iran, amid the Islamic Republic’s ongoing nationwide internet blackout and brutal crackdown, Oliver Darcy reported in his recent independent newsletter Status.

Partial cell service was briefly returned to the Iranian capital of Tehran early Tuesday morning for the first time in over four days, with several calls reportedly being made between residents and journalists serving at the Dubai Office for The Associated Press (AP).

Iranian authorities are hunting down users of Elon Musk’s satellite internet service Starlink in an effort to stop protest videos from reaching the outside world, with security forces launching an operation over the weekend to search for and confiscate Starlink dishes in Western Tehran, according to the Wall Street Journal.

According to the Editorial Board of Iran International, at least 12,000 people have been killed so far by security forces in ongoing anti-government demonstrations in Iran, calling it the “largest massacre in contemporary Iranian history,” occurring primarily over two consecutive nights, last Thursday and Friday, January 8 and 9.

Iran International stated that the statistics are based on information received from one source close to the Supreme National Security Council, two sources in the Office of the President, accounts received from several sources in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the cities of Mashhad, Kermanshah, and Isfahan, eyewitness accounts and families of the deceased, field reports, data related to medical centers, and information obtained by doctors and nurses in various cities across Iran.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said the world is seeing the “final days” of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as anti-government protests continue to spread across the country, with hundreds of thousands demonstrating in the Iranian capital of Tehran. “When a regime can only hold on to power through violence, it is effectively finished. I believe that we are now witnessing the final days and weeks of this regime,” Metz told reporters today during a two-day visit to India.

President Donald J. Trump in a post earlier on Truth Social directed at anti-regime protesters in Iran, “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP”

Other than a few movements in the last day or so that were slightly interesting, there still has been no concerted effort observed by the U.S. Air Force or Navy, no major airlift or ongoing buildup, to prepare for future military action against Iran. However, if action is imminent, I would expect the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is quietly on its way from the South China Sea.

A senior Iranian health ministry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said about 3,000 people had been killed across the country but sought to shift the blame to “terrorists” fomenting unrest. The figure included hundreds of security officers, he said. Another government official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he had seen an internal report that referred to at least 3,000 dead, and added that the toll could climb. -NYT

At least 12,000, and possibly as many as 20,000 people have been killed during the ongoing anti-government demonstrations in Iran, two sources, including one inside Iran, have told CBS News.

White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met secretly over the weekend with the Exiled Former Crown Prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, to discuss the anti-government protests currently raging across Iran, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke to Axios.