Iran rewards Taliban in attacks on U.S. soldiers, according to CNN
US intelligence agencies believe that the Iranian government paid the Taliban to carry out an attack on the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan on 11 December, against US and coalition troops in Afghanistan, according to the US network CNN. The air base was run by U.S. troops and, according to the network, Tehran paid "rewards" to the Haqqani network, a terrorist group led by the second-largest leader of the Taliban. The attack killed two civilians and injured more than 70, including two Americans. The Pentagon decided not to retaliate in the hope of preserving the peace agreement agreed between the Trump Administration and the Taliban in February this year.
In the documents to which the American media has had access, it does not speak directly of the Islamic Republic, but CNN assures that "two sources familiar with the intelligence confirmed that it refers to Iran". U.S. intelligence officials have acknowledged that the Haqqani network did not need payments to attack U.S. troops, but according to the Pentagon document, it is likely to motivate and encourage further attacks against U.S. and coalition forces.
Only a month after this attack, the U.S. killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani in a drone attack in Baghdad, but according to CNN, this attack is not believed to have been a direct retaliation against Bagram. The Trump Administration has insisted on several occasions that Soleimani's murder was in self-defense.
The report comes almost two months after allegations that Russia was funding Taliban fighters for killing Americans in Afghanistan. The Kremlin has denied this allegation and the Donald Trump Government has consistently played down this controversy in recent weeks. Trump rejected these reports and called them a "hoax," but his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, confirmed that he had spoken to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and warned him that if these accusations were true Moscow would "pay a high price. Allegations that are being investigated.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said earlier this month that he would continue to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, as agreed in February. This month the current number of soldiers at 8,600 would be reduced to less than 5,000 for the November presidential election, Esper said. At the time of the base attack on Bagram in December, peace negotiations between Washington and the Taliban were at their weakest.
But in late February, the United States and its NATO allies agreed to withdraw troops if the radical Islamist group pledged not to allow other extremist groups, such as al-Qaeda or Daesh, to operate within the areas it controls. This agreement provides for the withdrawal of 5,000 of the more than 12,000 American troops deployed on Afghan soil and paves the way for a possible intra-Afghan talks after 18 years of war.
