A Russian spy unit secretly offered bounties last year to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. coalition forces in Afghanistan, including American troops, the New York Times reports.The intelligence officials believe that militants did collect some of the bounty money after completing successful operations against coalition forces. However, it is not yet clear if any of the deaths of the 20 American service members who were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019 are linked to the Russian operation.
The National Security Council discussed intelligence during an interagency meeting at the White House in March, though there is no final decision made yet.
The Russian Embassy in the United States said that Russian diplomats are directly threatened in the United States and the U.K. due to these groundless accusations. The Embassy summoned NYT to stop spreading fake news.