Three Marines, Now a Focus of Russian Bounties Investigation, Show the Costs of an Endless War
American intelligence agencies are investigating whether that car bomb was detonated at the behest of a Russian military agency paying bounties to Afghanistan militia groups for killing American troops. Such a possibility, if true, would be a staggering repudiation of Mr. Trump’s yearslong embrace of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Thus far, there is no conclusive evidence linking the deaths to any kind of Russian bounty.
Perhaps even more significant is that it has taken the debate over possible Russian bounties to bring what happened to Sergeant Slutman and the two others Marines — Sgt. Robert A. Hendriks, 25, and Staff Sgt. Benjamin S. Hines, 31 — to the forefront of American consciousness.
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The investigation into the deaths of the three Marines continues. Although Mr. Trump has dismissed the suspected Russian payments as “fake news,” Congress has begun hearings into the matter. Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that while the government so far lacks proof that any Russian bounties caused specific military casualties, “we are still looking.”
“We’re not done,” General Milley told a House committee last week. “We’re going to run this thing to ground.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/politics/afghanistan-russia-bounties-marines.html
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