25 Afghan police may have joined Taliban

A group of about two dozen Afghan national police officers may have defected to the Taliban, according to American and Afghan officers here in Wardak Province. The police officers left their posts in Chak, a remote district of Wardak, just before midnight Wednesday, and on Thursday morning a spokesman for the Taliban claimed that the officers had surrendered to them. "They left with all their weapons, two trucks and machine guns and heavy weapons," said Maj. Abdul Khalil, the police chief in the Jalrez district, just north of Chak. Major Khalil said there had been a dispute about pay. "We don't know if they have gone over to the Taliban, or they just ran away, or what has happened," he said. "We're concerned, though, because they took heavy weapons."