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Russia offered Taliban-linked fighters bounties to attack British troops - as senior Tory MP seeks answers

A senior Conservative MP is seeking an urgent question in the Commons on Monday about an alleged plot that a Russian intelligence unit offered Taliban-linked fighters bounties to kill coalition troops in Afghanistan.

British security officials have confirmed to Sky News that the reports about the plot are true.

If Tobias Ellwood, chair of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, is granted his urgent question, it will require a government minister to respond in person.

Mr Ellwood told Sky News: "I think it's completely unacceptable that a fellow permanent member of the UN Security Council is now seen to be training and supplying arms to the very militia that has prevented peaceful conclusions to this decade-old conflict (in Afghanistan).

"So serious is this that I'll be seeking an urgent question on Monday and will be encouraging the UK to raise this matter at the UN and indeed our NATO allies."

Mr Ellwood said the Russia allegations in Afghanistan offer a reminder of the need to reconstitute a committee of MPs that scrutinises the work of the UK's intelligence and security services and has the power to release a long-awaited report into alleged Russian meddling in the UK.

He said: "Let's get that intelligence and security committee up and running, let's publish the overdue Russia report, let's make it very, very clear that it is simply unacceptable for a member of the UN security council to place bounties on US and UK heads."

The report, which was first published on Friday evening by The New York Times, is "on the nose", according to a source briefed on the matter.

"This is another example of the moral vacuum the GRU (an arm of Russia's military intelligence agency) operate in," Sky News has been told.

"Offering rewards to attack soldiers who are trying to bring peace to a nation is repugnant."

There are currently around 1,000 British troops deployed in Afghanistan, mainly in the capital Kabul, and no confirmation any have been hurt as a result of the Russian efforts.

Tom Tugenhadt, chair of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee and a former soldier in Afghanistan, told Sky News: "Reports of Russian attempts to incite attacks on British troops are deeply concerning.

"We know the GRU have been caught in the UK and are active around the world and that's a danger to our forces."

The New York Times reported that 20 US soldiers were killed in Afghanistan last year but "it was not clear which killings were under suspicion".

It is thought that Moscow has been trying to destabilise a possible US-negotiated peace deal in Afghanistan.

Donald Trump tweeted that "nobody briefed or told me, or Vice President Mike Pence or Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about the so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians".

The president continued: "Everybody is denying it and there have not been many attacks on us," adding: "Nobody's been tougher on Russia than the Trump Administration."

Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden said: "The truly shocking revelation that if the Times report is true, and I emphasise that again, is that President Trump, the commander-in-chief of American troops serving in a dangerous theatre of war, has known about this for months, according to the Times, and done worse than nothing."

It is understood the intelligence was only shared with British officials recently but Boris Johnson has now been briefed. Downing Street will be under pressure to respond to the news and take action against Moscow.

Sky has been told that the group responsible for the plan is the 29155 unit of the GRU, the same Russian intelligence outfit behind the Skripal poisonings , and the failed 2016 coup in Montenegro.

Arthur Snell, a former UK diplomat who was posted to Helmand, in southern Afghanistan in 2010, said the alleged GRU operation is part of a wider Russian tactic to use deniable means to undermine western allies.

He said: "It is evidence that the Russians are willing to really push the envelope in terms of highly aggressive and completely unethical practices.

"And it also seems to show that the Russians are kind of looking at a worldwide theatre of battle in terms of the places they feel they can target in terms of western assets and western interests."

News of this Russian plan, and the direct targeting of British troops, will again raise the question of when the long overdue report into Russian interference by parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) will be published.

The report, which examined claims of Russian interference in Britain, was sent to Downing Street on 17 October last year for sign-off.

That process usually takes no more than 10 days, but the report is still yet to be published and the ISC hasn't been reconvened after December's general election.