US says Russia is arming the Taliban in Afghanistan

Commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan Gen. John Nicholson said that Russia was backing the Taliban and also providing weapons smuggled through the Tajik border.

"We see a narrative that's being used that grossly exaggerates the number of Isis [Islamic State group] fighters here. This narrative then is used as a justification for the Russians to legitimize the actions of Taliban and provide some degree of support to the Taliban,” Gen. Nicholson told BBC News.

"We've had stories written by the Taliban that have appeared in the media about financial support provided by the enemy. We've had weapons brought to this headquarters and given to us by Afghan leaders and said, this was given by the Russians to the Taliban. We know that the Russians are involved," he added.

Gen. Nicholson believes that Russian military exercises held on the Afghan border with Tajikistan are a guise used to “bring in large amounts of equipment and then leave some of it behind." He says the weapons are then smuggled into Afghanistan to support the Taliban.

"This activity really picked up in the last 18 to 24 months," he stated. "Prior to that we had not seen this kind of destabilizing activity by Russia here. When you look at the timing it roughly correlates to when things started to heat up in Syria. So it's interesting to note the timing of the whole thing,” Gen. Nicholson said, adding that he could not calculate exactly how strongly Moscow is backing the Taliban.

Top Afghan military and police figures have said that night vision goggles, medium and heavy machine guns and small arms are among the weapons provided by Russia to the Taliban.

Analysts speculate that the alliance could have been born out of aligned interests.

U.S. President Donald Trump suspended security aid to Pakistan after complaining on Twitter that Pakistan had "given us nothing but lies & deceit" and accusing it of providing "safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan."

The Taliban is seeking to show itself as an independent force distant from Pakistan, thus bringing the issue of funding and global backers to the fore.

Russia has, on its part, denied providing weapons or funding to the Taliban, although Moscow has admitted to holding talks with the group.