Afghanistan war: Russia denies shelling out militants to eliminate US troops

Russia has rejected as “baseless” accusations that it supplied Taliban-connected militants rewards to kill US and other Nato troops in Afghanistan.

The New York Moments and Washington Article cited US officials as stating a Russian armed forces intelligence device connected to assassination tries in Europe had offered the alleged bounties final calendar year.

The Russian embassy in the US mentioned the claims had led to threats to diplomats.

The Taliban also denied there was any these types of offer with Russian intelligence.

The stories come as the US makes an attempt to negotiate a peace offer to finish the 19-12 months war in Afghanistan.

In accordance to the New York Periods, President Donald Trump was briefed on the experiences in March, but the White House has denied this.

“Neither the president nor the vice-president were briefed on the alleged Russian bounty intelligence,” explained White House push secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Saturday night.

Having said that, she added, “this does not communicate to the advantage of the alleged intelligence but to the inaccuracy of The New York Situations story erroneously suggesting that President Trump was briefed on this subject.”

The unnamed officials cited by the New York Periods stated US intelligence businesses experienced concluded months in the past that a device of Russia’s GRU army intelligence company experienced sought to destabilise its adversaries by covertly supplying bounties for thriving assaults on coalition forces.

Islamist militants, or armed felony factors intently involved with them, ended up believed to have collected some revenue, the newspaper said.

In a sequence of Twitter posts, the Russian embassy in the US accused the paper of advertising bogus information.

Twenty American troops died in Afghanistan in 2019, but the New York Situations explained it was not apparent which fatalities were being beneath suspicion.

The officials quoted by the New York Periods claimed the White House’s Nationwide Stability Council experienced considered how to reply, which includes imposing an escalating raft of sanctions against Russia.

The GRU unit allegedly associated has also been connected to the attempted murder of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent in Salisbury, England, in March 2018.

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A spokesman for the Taliban also known as the accusations baseless.

“Our target killings and assassinations had been ongoing in yrs prior to, and we did it on our individual sources,” Zabihullah Mujahid instructed the New York Times.

He added that the Taliban experienced stopped attacking US and Nato forces following they agreed in February to a phased troop withdrawal and to raise sanctions. In return, the Taliban claimed they would not enable extremist groups to run in parts they command.