President Trump called out fake news as he denied the story of American soldiers being killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan after receiving bounties from the Russian Military.
A piece of news reported by the NY Times that was published on 26th June claims that the Russian Military paid the Afghani militants for killing members of the US Military that were resided in Afghanistan. It was hinted that this might be linked to the killings of 20 Americans in 2019 but nothing is confirmed.
Donald Trump tweeted about the fake news on 29th June:
The story was denied by Taliban and the Russian Foreign Ministry. Moreover, the White House has also confirmed that neither the President nor the Vice President was briefed regarding such intelligence.
Joe Biden says that it is just another inaccuracy of the NY Times. He says that it has also reported false news in the past, so this should not come as a surprise.
US Navy’s retired Captain, Chuck Nash, says that it is highly unlikely for the news to be true because Taliban has already lost 75,000 people in the past 18 years. Their main goal as of now is to push foreign forces out of their country and doing something like this would not help. Trump has withdrawn around 86,000 of its troops from Afghanistan and there has been no news regarding the Taliban going against the troops since the deal was signed. So, all of this makes little sense as there is no incentive for Afghani militants to be paid.
He further added that this news is from an anonymous source having no credibility and cannot be believed since five top-level members of the executive branch have confirmed that nothing like this ever happened. The officials can’t just deny it if there were any documents.
President Trump, however, has expressed doubts regarding the anonymous source and demands that the source should be revealed. As Russia has paid the Taliban to kill British in the past, Trump believes there could be some truth in the news.
