Russia has denied the reports that claimed it offered Taliban-linked militants bounties to kill US troops in Afghanistan.
The accusation that a Russian military intelligence unit had paid bounties last year was reported by US officials, The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.
The same Russian military intelligence unit has been linked to assassination attempts in Europe.
The New York Times, citing unnamed officials, stated that the US intelligence agencies had come to a conclusion months ago that a unit of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency had tried to destabilise its opponents by offering bounties for successful attacks on the US troops.
Although the New York Times said it was not clear on which deaths of the US troops are under suspicion, 20 American troops died in Afghanistan in 2019.
The reports come as the US attempts to end the 19-year war in Afghanistan via negotiation of a peace deal.
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The Russian embassy in the US stated that the accusations led to life threats to diplomats.
The Taliban also denied doing any deals with the Russian military intelligence unit and called the accusations ‘baseless’.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, told the New York Times that “Our target killings and assassinations were ongoing in years before, and we did it on our own resources.”
The Taliban spokesman further stated that the Taliban had stopped attacking the US and Nato forces after they had agreed to step-by-step troop withdrawal and the lifting of sanctions, in February itself.