The State Department said it would reward information on 14 heads of the Guard and its allies, including Iranian Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and the Guard’s Commander-in-Chief Ahmad Vahidi, the man widely believed to be the de facto leader of Iran. Notably, of the 14 listed, five only included the position and not a name, highlighting the dearth of intelligence on Iran’s new leadership after many of its former senior leadership were killed in the opening hours of Operation Epic Fury and Israel’s Roaring Lion.The notice said the 14 people “command and direct various elements of the [IRGC], which plans, organizes, and executes terrorism around the world,” while describing the IRGC itself as playing “a central role in Iran’s use of terrorism as a key tool of Iranian statecraft.”
Notably, the announcement came out shortly after the Guard put a $10 million bounty on Barron Trump’s head. The financial amount is a coincidence, however, as $10 million is the standard total for high-profile U.S. bounties.The State Department released a similar poster in early March, also offering $10 million for information on different Guard leaders. In that iteration, Iran’s then-top national security official, Ali Larijani, and the Minister of Intelligence and Security Esmail Khatib were listed. Both of them were killed in Israeli airstrikes shortly after.The early-March poster also had significant gaps in knowledge. One entry simply listed “The [IRGC] Commander” with a default profile, as the U.S. didn’t know who was running the secretive group at the time.IRAN PUTS OUT PROPAGANDA VIDEO TRACKING BARRON TRUMP’S LOCATION, OFFERING $10 MILLION FOR HIS ASSASSINATIONThe U.S. and Israel assassinated dozens of senior Iranian leaders in their war with Iran, with another few dozen assassinated by Israel during the 12-day war last year. Iran has pursued the assassination of any U.S. or Israeli official for years, with planned assassinations of Trump as revenge for his ordered killing of Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. So far, all efforts have been unsuccessful. The Guard has tried reverting to threatening softer, vulnerable targets, including Barron Trump and his mother, first lady Melania Trump.The new bounties come after a complete breakdown in negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, with neither party willing to escalate or back down. Trump has fallen back on a strategy of economic strangulation, hyping up his plans for an “economic D-Day” to cripple Iran’s ability to wage war.
