Few Taliban Leaders Take Afghan Offer to Switch Sides

By ALISSA J. RUBIN
NYT

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Toor Jan, who used to kill Americans and Canadians here, does not want much from the Afghan government. A home. A job. And, yes, eight security guards.

He needs them. As one of the few Taliban commanders to switch sides, he is a target. In a rare interview, the 28-year-old, who is tall, thin and has a full black beard, is somber about the step he has taken, although he is one of the success stories of the government’s biggest and best-financed peace program, which aims to bring Taliban fighters over to the government side, sapping the insurgency’s strength.

“When I decided to switch sides, I was fed up with fighting,” he said. “I cannot pull the trigger anymore. I am just tired of it.”

Toor Jan’s switch may represent a hopeful sign for the government’s plan to reintegrate the Taliban into Afghan society — but it is also a rarity. Of the 1,700 fighters who have enrolled in the 10-month-old program, only a handful are midlevel commanders, and two-thirds are from the north, where the insurgency is much weaker than in the south, said Maj. Gen. Phil Jones, the director of a NATO unit that is monitoring the program.

(More here.)