Top U.S. general promises to 'get to the bottom' of Russian bounty reports

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley on Thursday told the House Armed Services Committee that Russia and other U.S. adversaries have been supplying "training, money, weapons, propaganda ... and a lot of other things" to the Taliban for years, and the Trump administration was "perhaps" not doing "as much as we could or should" to stop this.

The military has delivered a ground response, he said, but "the issue is higher than that. The issue is at the strategic level. What should or could we be doing at the strategic level?" Options include making diplomatic protests and imposing sanctions, and Milley said "some of that is done. Are we doing as much as we could or should? Perhaps not. Not only to the Russians, but to others. But a lot of it is being done. Some of it's quiet. Some of it's not so quiet."

In late June, The New York Times reported, and other news outlets confirmed, there's significant U.S. intelligence indicating Russia paid bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan. When asked, Milley said the military is "going to dig into this. We're going to get to the bottom of it, this bounty thing. If in fact there's bounties directed by the government of Russia or any of their institutions to kill American soldiers, that's a big deal. We don't have that level of fidelity yet."

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