Russia ‘perhaps’ supplying Taliban

WASHINGTON: Russia is "perhaps" supplying the Taliban as they fight US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, a top US general said on Thursday.

General Curtis Scaparrotti, Nato’s Supreme Allied Commander who also heads the US military’s European Command, told lawmakers he had seen Russian influence expand in multiple regions, including in Afghanistan.

"I have seen the influence of Russia of late -- an increased influence -- in terms of association and perhaps even supply to the Taliban," Scaparrotti told the Senate Armed Services Committee without elaborating.

Nato troops have been fighting in Afghanistan since a US-led invasion in late 2001, following the September 11 attacks.

About 13,000 Nato service members are in Afghanistan -- the bulk of them American -- under its Resolute Support training mission.

Scaparrotti’s comment goes one step further than remarks last month by General John Nicholson, the US commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan.

Nicholson testified that Russia is giving the Taliban encouragement and diplomatic cover in order to undermine American influence and to defeat Nato, but he did not address whether Russia is supplying the Islamist insurgents.