The World : Key Afghan Aide Defects

An Afghan general who was in charge of President Najibullah’s personal security force has defected to the rebel side, and he said that the country’s Marxist regime is weak and could soon fall. “If the Russians cut off all supplies to (Najibullah), he’d be finished in two or three months,” Maj. Gen. Mohammed Farouk Zarif told a news conference in Peshawar, Pakistan. He said he had served for 18 months as chief of the 3,000-strong government security force that protects Najibullah and the Afghan Politburo. Zarif, 39, the brother of Afghanistan’s former U.N. ambassador, Farid Zarif, one of Najibullah’s closest advisers, fled the country in June along with his wife and children. He gave no details on how he escaped.