Media claims Russia paid Taliban for US military killings: reaction of the parties

U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan - including U.S. troops - during peace talks to end the long-running war there. About this, with reference to an unnamed source, writes The New York Times.

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A few months ago, the United States concluded that the Russian unit, in order to destabilize and revenge the defectors, carried out killings and other covert operations in Europe, secretly offered rewards for successful attacks on the US military in Afghanistan in 2019.

Officials said the Islamist militants or closely related armed criminal elements took money for this. Twenty Americans were killed in a battle in Afghanistan in 2019, but it is not clear which killings are considered custom-made.

Officials said intelligence information was shared with U.S. President Donald Trump, and the White House National Security Council discussed the issue at an interagency meeting in late March. Officials have developed a list of options, but the White House has not yet approved any move.

An operation to encourage the killing of US and other NATO troops would be a significant and provocative escalation of US and Afghan officials claiming Russian support for the Taliban, and this would be the first time it became known that a Russian spy unit had launched attacks on Western troops.

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Any connection with the Taliban that led to the death of the US military would also be a huge escalation of the so-called hybrid war of Russia against the United States, a strategy of destabilizing opponents through a combination of cyberattacks, spreading fake news and covert military operations.

The Kremlin was not aware of the allegations, said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“If someone makes accusations, we will answer,” Peskov said.

The Taliban spokesman Zabihulla Mujahid denied that the rebels “had any similar relationship with any intelligence agency,” and called the message an attempt to defame them.

“Such reports of an arrangement with the Russian intelligence service are baseless - our targeted killings and executions have happened for many years before, and we have done it using our own resources,” he said. “This changed after our agreement with the Americans, their lives are not in danger because we do not attack them.”

Earlier this year, the US and the Taliban after 18 years of war signed a “peace agreement” in Afghanistan, writes "Voice of America".

The United States and NATO allies agreed to withdraw their troops by next year if the militants comply with the agreement.

White House Reaction

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Saturday, June 27, that neither President Trump nor Vice President Mike Pence had been briefed on the alleged Russian “bounty hunt,” writes with the BBC.

Trump said U.S. intelligence officials did not believe it was credible information that Russian military intelligence was offering cash rewards to Taliban militants in Afghanistan for killing U.S. military personnel.

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“Intelligence only reported to me that they did not consider that information reliable and therefore did not transmit that information to me or the vice president,” the president wrote on Twitter.

Meanwhile, US lawmakers are calling for an investigation.

Trump thus reacted to the appeal of Republican Senator Lindsay Graham that the Trump administration should consider such allegations seriously.

“Congress should be sure to get to the bottom of recent press reports that Russian GRU units in Afghanistan offered the Taliban pay to kill US soldiers in order to push the US out of the region,” Graham said in a tweet.

Democratic senator Kirsten Gillibrand stated the need for a congressional investigation into Russia's actions to find out who was paid, what amounts were involved, and to identify Americans who died as a result.

She also wants to know when Trump and other officials in the administration found out about this, as well as whether members of Congress had such information.

“I believe that when we ask our service members and their families to take risks and make sacrifices for the United States, they need to know that we are doing everything we can to mitigate those risks and respect those sacrifices,” Gillibrand said.

She said that “President Trump appears to have completely failed in his duty in this situation. But we can do ours—through deep investigation, oversight, and accountability."

Mackenani said the New York Times incorrectly suggested that Trump was informed of this intelligence.

“The United States receives thousands of intelligence reports a day and they are thoroughly vetted,” she said. “Although the White House does not typically disclose intelligence discussions, the CIA Director, National Security Advisor and Chief of Staff can confirm that neither the President nor the Vice President was briefed on intelligence regarding this matter.”

Biden reaction

Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate who plans to challenge Trump in the election in November, said if the report was true, it would be a truly shocking revelation - particularly if it turns out that the US president did not take action in response.

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Trump's rival also promised, if elected, to confront Vladimir Putin and force Russia to pay a serious price for his actions.

UK reaction

The Sky News channel reports that representatives of the British intelligence services confirmed to him the reliability of this information.

The head of the parliament’s defense committee, Tobias Ellwood, intends to raise this issue in parliament with the government. If his request is accepted, the Minister of Government will have to give an official response.

“I think it is completely unacceptable that a permanent member of the UN Security Council, as we see, is supplying weapons and training to the very militants who have prevented a peaceful resolution to this decades-long conflict,” Ellwood said.

“This is so serious that I will be seeking an urgent request on Monday 29 June and will urge the UK to raise this issue with the UN and NATO,” Tobias Ellwood said.

“It must be made absolutely clear that it is simply unacceptable for a member of the UN Security Council to offer a bounty on the heads of Americans and British people,” Ellwood said.

Taliban reaction

On Saturday, June 27, the Taliban denied the theory of possible collusion with Russia, saying that it remains committed to the agreement signed with Washington.

The Taliban said in a statement that they did not owe anything to any intelligence agencies or foreign countries.

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It also emphasizes that most often the US military in Afghanistan does not die in battle, but in explosions of improvised explosive devices.

Moscow reaction

Russian diplomats indignantly reacted to an article in the New York Times.

“If we talk about facts, generally known ones, in Afghanistan it has long been no secret that members of the American intelligence community are involved in drug trafficking, cash payments to militants for the passage of transport caravans, kickbacks from contracts for the implementation of various projects paid for by American taxpayers,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. , published on Saturday, June 27. The publication of the American newspaper was called “infofake” and “a simple stuffing”.

Even earlier, the Russian Embassy in Washington said that “unsubstantiated and anonymous accusations” published by the New York Times, according to which Moscow was allegedly behind the killings of American troops in Afghanistan, provoked “a direct threat to the lives of employees of the Russian embassies in Washington and London.”

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