A commander in the Afghan special forces has defected to an insurgent group allied with the Taliban, officials announced Sunday. And he brought a humvee full of guns and high-powered equipment with him.
Monsif Khan allegedly paid some soldiers to go sightseeing and sent others away on leave before he stole their guns, night-vision goggles, and binoculars and drove to join the insurgent group Hezb-e-Islami, Reuters reports.
Khan is the first special forces commander to switch sides and join the Hezb-e-Islami insurgency, but he’s part of a growing trend of defection within the Afghan forces.