The Iranian military has offered a reward of $30,000, about 1 million baht, to anyone who can kill or capture a U.S. soldier and deliver them to authorities. If a woman is the captor, the reward will be doubled.
Iran's official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday, 16 August, that General Amir Hatami, commander of the Iranian military, announced the bounty plan following strong public interest to participate.
General Hatami stated that anyone who kills, captures, and hands over an American soldier accused of being an invader to the Iranian military will receive a reward of $30,000 or 5 billion tomans from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
He added that brave Iranian women who can carry out such actions will receive double the reward.
However, General Hatami did not disclose details about where the bounty would apply or when any capture or killing of U.S. soldiers might occur.
This move comes despite no reports of U.S. ground forces entering Iran during the current Middle East war, except for a rescue operation in April to recover an American pilot whose plane was shot down.
General Hatami also called on the U.S. to withdraw troops from the Middle East and declared that the U.S. no longer has the right to enter the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, or the Strait of Hormuz.
The war between Iran and the U.S. began on 28 February after U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. About a month later, the U.S. launched a major rescue operation to assist the weapons systems officer of an F-15 fighter jet that crashed, deploying around 200 U.S. troops and over 170 aircraft to locate and extract the pilot before Iranian forces found him.
During the operation, Iranian forces damaged a U.S. A-10 ground-attack aircraft, forcing it to be abandoned in friendly territory. Reports indicate the U.S. had to abandon and destroy some aircraft used in the mission, including a C-130 transport plane.
A few days earlier, the F-15 pilot was rescued again by a helicopter team during another operation.
The war's intensity subsided temporarily with a ceasefire agreement in April after nearly 40 days of fighting, followed by peace talks in June that later collapsed.
Since then, Iran and the U.S. have continued to exchange fire sporadically, mainly in southern Iran and around the Strait of Hormuz.
Although both sides maintain indirect contact through intermediaries, there is no clear sign of a diplomatic agreement. Iran has also set conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, including demanding war damage compensation.
Since the war began, 17 U.S. soldiers have died, all outside Iran, in countries including Jordan and Iraq, with the latest death reported in July.
/source:channelnewsasia
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