WASHINGTON – A Russian spy unit paid members of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan to carry out lethal attacks on US troops in that country, according to a classified assessment by US intelligence, people familiar with the report said.
The evaluation of the role played by the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU, in promoting attacks against US soldiers, comes as President Trump is pressing the Pentagon to withdraw a significant portion of US forces from Afghanistan and the US diplomats try to forge a peace deal involving the Taliban and the US-backed Afghan government.
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The intelligence assessment of Russia’s actions in Afghanistan was released to the White House earlier this spring, and until recently had only been known to a handful of officials, a person familiar with it said. Its contents were reported on Friday by the New York Times.
It could not be determined if the Russian rewards paid to the Taliban fighters resulted in American combat deaths in Afghanistan.
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The White House, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon declined to comment. The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is a secret unit of the GRU that, according to Western officials, has carried out lethal, sometimes clandestine, operations against Moscow’s adversaries. The same unit, they said, was responsible for the poisoning in the United Kingdom of Sergei Skripal, a former GRU officer who defected to Britain, and his daughter. Russia has denied participation.
This story continues in The Wall Street Journal.
