Iran offers $30,000 bounty for killing or capturing US soldiers
The Iranian army has announced a $30,000 reward for killing or capturing US military personnel, with double the amount offered to women. Army chief Amir Hatami stated the plan followed citizen requests.
Iran’s army announced on 16 August that any individual who kills or captures a United States servicemember will receive a reward of $30,000, with women eligible for double that amount.
The proclamation arrives amid a war that began on 28 February when the United States, together with Israel, attacked Iranian targets. After nearly 40 days of intense fighting, a cease‑fire was declared in April, only for a framework for peace talks to emerge in June and then collapse weeks later. Since the cease‑fire, exchanges have been sporadic, centred mainly in southern Iran and around the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Media additions
Army chief Amir Hatami told the state‑run IRNA news agency that the bounty plan had been drafted after “a large number of requests” from citizens who wanted to contribute financially to the war effort. He offered no details on where or when an operation to capture or kill U.S. Troops might occur.
"Anyone who kills or captures and hands over an invading American military personnel will receive a reward equivalent to $30,000 or five billion tomans from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army,"
Amir Hatami, army chief, via Straitstimes
He added that “courageous Iranian women who carry out such an action will receive double the reward.” The use of “five billion tomans” reflects an informal unit equivalent to 10,000 Iranian rials, a conversion the statement itself supplies.
The bounty’s monetary value is also expressed in Singapore dollars — S$38,388 — in the Straitstimes report, underscoring Tehran’s attempt to make the offer understandable to an international audience.
While the United States has not deployed ground forces inside Iran, there has been one notable incursion. Just over a month after the war erupted, U.S. Forces launched a massive rescue operation to retrieve the weapon systems officer of an F‑15 jet. The mission involved roughly 200 U.S. Troops and more than 170 aircraft racing to locate the airman ahead of Iranian forces. During the effort Iranian troops damaged an A‑10 ground‑attack aircraft, which was forced to ditch over friendly territory, and the United States abandoned and destroyed a C‑130 transport plane used in the operation. A smaller helicopter rescue had retrieved the F‑15 pilot a few days earlier.
The rescue mission remains the only known U.S. Ground presence on Iranian soil since the conflict began. All 17 U.S. Servicemembers killed in the war have died outside Iranian territory, in nations such as Jordan and Iraq, with the most recent fatalities recorded in July.
Hatami reiterated Iran’s demand that the United States withdraw from the Middle East, stating that “they no longer have permission to enter the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman or the Strait of Hormuz.” The statement aligns with Tehran’s broader list of conditions for reopening the strait, which includes compensation for war damages.
Indirect diplomatic channels continue to operate through mediators, but neither source reports any breakthrough. Both the Straitstimes and the Agence France‑Presse piece for GMA Network note that contact remains “with little sign of any diplomatic breakthrough.”
