US offers $10m reward for info on Iran's supreme leader, senior officials

The United States has announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of Iran's new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, and nine other senior Iranian military and intelligence officials.

The reward, posted on the US State Department's "Rewards for Justice" website, targets individuals associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the powerful military force established after Iran's 1979 revolution that answers directly to the supreme leader.

The announcement comes weeks after Mojtaba Khamenei succeeded his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in joint US-Israeli strikes that began on February 28. The younger Khamenei is believed to have been injured in the attacks and has not appeared in public since, though he issued his first statement last Thursday.

Among those named in the reward offer are Iran's security chief Ali Larijani, Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, and Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni, along with two officials from Khamenei's office. The website also lists four other IRGC figures, including the commander and secretary of the defence council, but does not provide their names or photographs.

Despite US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's claim that Iran's leadership was "cowering" underground, Larijani was seen in videos verified by Reuters on Friday attending a rally in Tehran alongside President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.

The State Department accused the targeted individuals of commanding and directing elements of the IRGC, which it said "plans, organises, and executes terrorism around the world."

The IRGC could not be reached for comment, as Friday is a weekly day of rest in Iran, and Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Washington has previously designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organisation, accusing it of carrying out attacks that killed US citizens. The US has also alleged that Iran orchestrated assassination plots against President Donald Trump and other American officials in retaliation for the 2020 killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.

Iran has consistently denied supporting terrorism, with officials dismissing US accusations as politically motivated and baseless.