Iran is reportedly paying fines to a Taliban faction for killing US and coalition troops in Afghanistan, leading to six attacks last year, including a suicide bombing at the U.S. air base in Bagram.
According to CNN, US intelligence estimates that Iran is paying the fines to the Haqqani network, ahead of the Bagram attack on December 11, in which two civilians were killed and more than 70 others were injured, including two Americans.
The Pentagon has decided not to retaliate in hopes of maintaining a peace deal that the Trump administration agreed with the Taliban in February, the CNN report said. In January, less than a month after Bagram’s attack, the US assassinated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Suleimani, in a drone strike in Baghdad, but that attack is not thought to have a direct revenge on Bagram.
“The Department of Defense does not open time guides or talks on internal consultation and intelligence information. “With that said, the department has on several occasions, both in public and in private, demanded that Iran end its spell of malicious and destabilizing behavior by the Middle East and the world,” a Pentagon spokesman said. May Rob Lodewick.
“While the United States, its NATO allies and coalition partners work to end 19 years of bloodshed, Iran’s domestic influence seeks to undermine the Afghan peace process and promote perpetuation of violence and instability.”
The report comes nearly two months after allegations that Russia paid fines to Taliban fighters for killing Americans in Afghanistan. Donald Trump dismissed those reports as a ‘hoax’, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that he had warned his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, that there would be “an enormous price to pay” if Moscow paid such fines. The Pentagon has said it will investigate Russian bounties, but has not yet reached a conclusion.
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