TEHRAN: Iran’s military announced on Sunday that it was offering a bounty equivalent to $30,000 for killing or capturing US soldiers, with the reward doubled if carried out by a woman.
Army chief Amir Hatami said the plan had been drawn up following a “large number of requests” to participate, according to the IRNA state news agency.
There has been no known deployment of US ground forces in Iran during the Middle East war, with the exception of a rescue mission in April for a downed American airman.
Hatami did not provide any details on where or when the killing or capturing of US soldiers was expected to take place. “Anyone who kills or captures and hands over an invading American military personnel will receive a reward equivalent to $30,000 or 5 billion tomans from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army,” Hatami said, using an informal unit equivalent to 10,000 Iranian rials.
“Courageous Iranian women who carry out such an action will receive double the reward,” he added.
Hatami repeated Iran’s call for the US to leave the Middle East, and said “they no longer have permission to enter the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman or the Strait of Hormuz”.
Hatami, hit back at US President Donald Trump over his comments concerning the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported. Hatami said Trump was making a serious error by treating the issue lightly, warning that Iran had forces prepared to defend the strategic waterway.
He also claimed that US forces had been effectively pushed out of the region and would no longer be permitted to enter the Gulf, the Sea of Oman or the Strait of Hormuz.
“Joking about such remarks is a major mistake, because this is Iran, and it has defenders who will break your legs,” he added. According to Hatami, US military bases would not be permitted to return to their former positions, stressing that Iran would not accept such a development. His remarks came after Trump threatened to make the Strait of Hormuz US territory.
Meanwhile, Iran accused Qatar on Sunday of thwarting efforts to work out what happened to three pilots Tehran says were captured during the Middle East war, though the Gulf state has denied detaining them.
The Islamic republic had previously reported one pilot killed and others missing after a sortie to Qatar in March, but had not claimed at the time that any of them had been captured.
“A team of experts from the Iranian Air Force has been waiting for several months to travel to Qatar to conduct an on-site investigation,” said General Mohammad Bagherzadeh of the Iranian armed forces.
“However, due to persistent delays by Qatari authorities, the return of our brave pilots to their homeland remains impossible,” he added, according to the Tasnim news agency. He called on Doha to authorise the team to travel to Qatar.
Bagherzadeh had accused Qatar on Saturday of having captured three Iranian pilots who were carrying out an operation against the United States’ Al Udeid air base in early March and demanded their release.
Qatar denied holding the pilots and said an invitation had been sent to Iran “to be briefed on the details of the search & rescue operations in April, but the Iranian side has yet to respond”.
Iran’s parliament approved on Sunday the general principles of a bill that would criminalise interviews and other communications with media deemed hostile to the Islamic Republic, including US or Israeli media and outlets financed by either country, Iran’s Shargh newspaper reported.
Osman Salari, a member of parliament’s judicial and legal commission, said the individual provisions of the bill, which is aimed at countering foreign intelligence influence, have yet to be debated and approved. Reports about the bill’s details should not yet be considered final, Salari told the Mizan news agency.
Under the proposed bill, interviews or participation in discussions with such media would be banned and violations would carry six months to two years in prison.
Interviews with other foreign media would require notification to the intelligence ministry, while contact with foreign embassies, offices of foreign organisations or other non-Iranian institutions without notification and written permission from the foreign ministry would be punishable by a fine and deprivation of certain social rights.
The bill will be considered article by article in parliament. Once parliament approves the final text, it will have to be reviewed by the Guardian Council before becoming law.
Iran executed a man convicted of deliberately driving his car into police officers during anti-government protests in the city of Karaj in January, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday.
Shahram Sadeghi was accused of driving a car into police officers in Karaj on January 8, injuring seven officers, one of whom was reportedly left in a coma for three months, according to Tasnim news agency.
Iranian Parliament Speaker and negotiation team head Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has said Iran “truly won” its war with the United States and Israel, claiming the country achieved both military and political gains.
Ghalibaf made the remarks while commenting on the conflict between Iran, the US and Israel, according to Iranian media reports. He said the outcome of the war demonstrated Iran’s ability to withstand pressure and confront its adversaries on both the battlefield and the political front.
Iranian media released a video showing a US MQ-1C drone being downed. Newly released footage shows the moment the IRGC Aerospace Force downed a US MQ-1C drone on May 31, 2026, using the advanced air defence system.
Tehran, Qom and Mashhad are set to host mourning ceremonies marking the 40th day since the burial of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. According to an official statement, his son and current Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, will preside over the ceremonies, media reported.
India has set a maximum daily cooking gas production target of 63,810 metric tons for state-run and private refineries to ensure domestic supplies and build buffers after US-Israeli war against Iran disrupted supplies of the essential fuel, according to an August 13 government order.
Saudi Arabia’s civil defense said on Sunday that the danger in Jazan province had passed, according to a post on X. It had earlier issued an alert warning of potential danger in the area.
The Trump administration spoke with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps by using Kurdistan Regional Government President Nechirvan Barzani as a secret backchannel, Axios reported on Sunday, citing three sources with direct knowledge of the talks.
The KRG administers a semi-autonomous region of northern Iraq and is headquartered in Erbil. Axios said that on May 10, the US government was unsure as to who was technically leading the IRGC.
Then, former director of the US’s national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, called Barzani with President Donald Trump’s approval. In the call, she asked if Barzani could get in touch with the IRGC’s top commander, Ahmad Vahidi.
Gabbard stressed to Barzani that the White House wanted to know if the IRGC’s leadership agreed with what Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were pitching at the negotiating table, or if they had any other demands, one source with knowledge of the call told Axios.
Notably, Barzani lived in Iran during the Iraq-Iran War in the 1980s, studied at the University of Tehran, speaks fluent Farsi, and has personal relationships with several members of the IRGC.
Barzani agreed to the administration’s request and reached out to his contacts in the IRGC. He stressed that he had a message from the administration and wanted to speak directly to Vahidi, one source told Axios.
The pair spoke over the phone on May 14. Barzani asked Vahidi if he agreed with the negotiations, and the latter said he supported them.
“I fully support them, and this is also the position of the IRGC. We prefer to solve this crisis through negotiations,” Vahidi said, a source with direct knowledge told Axios. Barzani then briefed Gabbard about the call, who, in turn, briefed the administration.
The Trump administration then responded with another proposal and floated the idea of Barzani hosting secret talks in Erbil. The Iranians didn’t rule the idea out, but were concerned over a few security issues, a source told Axios. They believed Israeli intelligence had many assets in Iraqi Kurdistan and were concerned the Israelis would try to assassinate them in Erbil or while they traveled there and back. The Erbil meeting never materialized.
Meanwhile, the leader of US Central Command, Brad Cooper, said on Sunday that his recent visit to the USS Lincoln was “awe-inspiring” and hailed the crew’s “resilience” following reports of concerns about mental health and deteriorating conditions aboard the ship.
In a statement CENTCOM posted to X, Admiral Cooper said while prolonged service at sea is “uniquely challenging and tough,” he noted that the Lincoln had the lowest number of mental health cases of the Navy’s 11 active aircraft carriers, and praised the carrier’s leadership for prioritizing mental health and crew resilience.
