KABUL – The Taliban on Saturday rejected a newspaper report claiming theirfighters had received rewards from Moscow’s spies to kill US troops inAfghanistan.
The New York Times reported Friday that bounties offered by a notorious armof Russia’s military intelligence service gave incentives to Talibanfighters to target US forces, just as US President Donald Trump tries towithdraw troops and end America’s longest war.
“The nineteen-year jihad of the Islamic Emirate is not indebted to thebeneficence of any intelligence organ or foreign country,” the Taliban saidin a statement issued in Kabul.
The group also denied previous US accusations it was given arms by Russia.
“The Islamic Emirate has made use of weapons, facilities and tools … thatwere already present in Af-ghanistan or are war spoils frequently seizedfrom the opposition in battles.”
The Taliban said home-made explosives accounted for most of the casualtiesamong US forces.
The group reiterated it was committed to an accord signed with Washingtonin February that paves the way for withdrawing all foreign forces fromAfghanistan by mid next year.
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Earlier on Saturday Russia also denounced the New York Times report.
The “baseless and anonymous accusations,” published by the newspaper, had“already led to direct threats to the life of employees of the RussianEmbassies in Washington DC and London,” the Russ-ian Embassy in Washingtonwrote on Twitter.
“Stop producing #fakenews that provoke life threats, @nytimes,” it added ina later tweet.
Russia has a long history in Afghanistan, where the former Soviet Union inits final years was bogged down in a devastating fight against Islamistguerrillas, then backed by Washington.
