DOD Denies Report of Russian Bounties on US Troops: ‘No Corroborating Evidence’

The Department of Defense (DOD) is denying the reports that allege Russia offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. soldiers.

“To date, DOD has no corroborating evidence to validate the recent allegations found in open-source reports,” chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement late Monday. “Regardless, we always take the safety and security of our forces in Afghanistan—and around the world—most seriously and therefore continuously adopt measures to prevent harm from potential threats.”

As The New York Times noted in a report on Friday, “Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the officials said. Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion.”

According to The New York Times report on Monday, the president received a written briefing in February on the alleged Russian bounties, citing two officials. Additionally, The Associated Press reports, “Then-national security adviser John Bolton also told colleagues he briefed Trump on the intelligence assessment in March 2019.”

The reports come as the White House