**NEW**—> The Russian bounties offered to Taliban-linked militants are believed to have resulted in the deaths of several U.S. service members, according to intelligence gleaned from U.S. military interrogations of captured militants in recent months https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/russian-bounties-to-taliban-linked-militants-resulted-in-deaths-of-us-troops-according-to-intelligence-assessments/2020/06/28/74ffaec2-b96a-11ea-80b9-40ece9a701dc_story.html

The intelligence was passed up from the U.S. Special Operations forces based in Afghanistan and led to a restricted high-level White House meeting in late March, the people said.

The bounty intel caused disagreement inside the admin about the right path forward. Khalilzad preferred confronting the Russians directly about the matter, while some NSC officials were more dismissive of taking immediate action. From @nakashimae @karendeyoung1 @missy_ryan & me