The United States has announced a reward of up to $10 million for information about senior Iranian military and intelligence officials, including the country’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
According to the U.S. State Department’s reward programme website, the offer targets 10 officials linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The force, established after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, is tasked with protecting the country’s clerical leadership and is loyal to the supreme leader.
Mojtaba Khamenei recently succeeded his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as Iran’s supreme leader after the elder leader was killed along with several senior officials in joint U.S. and Israeli strikes launched on February 28.
The younger Khamenei is believed to have been injured during the strikes and has not appeared in public since, although he issued his first statement on Thursday.
In addition to Khamenei, the U.S. is seeking information on several other senior Iranian officials, including security chief Ali Larijani, Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni, and two officials working in the Supreme Leader’s office.
However, videos verified by Reuters on Friday showed Larijani attending a rally in Tehran alongside President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, despite earlier remarks by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegsethsuggesting Iran’s leadership was hiding underground.
The reward programme also lists four additional officials, including the IRGC commander and the secretary of the defence council, though their names and photographs were not disclosed.
“These individuals command and direct various elements of the IRGC, which plans, organises and executes terrorism around the world,” the State Department said.
The United States has previously designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organisation, accusing it of involvement in attacks that have killed U.S. citizens and alleging that Iran has plotted assassinations against President Donald Trump and other American officials in retaliation for the 2020 killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.
Iran has repeatedly denied such allegations, stating that the accusations are politically motivated and used by Washington to justify sanctions and pressure campaigns.