The Iranians think pigeons are spying on them.
I would immagine this is a bad time to be an Iranian pigeon.
A friend of mine was a boom operator on a USAF air tanker. His detatchment was assigned to Midway island in the early ‘60s. He got caught by the base commander — a NAVY Captain — spraypainting USAF insignia on the goonie birds that soared around the island in the tradewinds. I don’t know how much more that the military can punish a guy — he was already serving on Midway.
Now you know that some bored soldier in Iraq is busy snaring pidgeons & banding them just to Eff with the Iranians.
The descriptions of the bands on the birds sound more like racing pigeons, but you're right. Wouldn't want to be a pigeon in Iran...