Karzai threatens to join Taliban

On a day when word came that a soldier from Rochester has been killed in Afghanistan, the head of the government for whom he and others have died reportedly has threatened to join the Taliban.

“He said that ‘if I come under foreign pressure, I might join the Taliban’,” Farooq Marenai, who represents the eastern province of Nangarharm, told the Associated Press about a weekend meeting. “He said rebelling would change to resistance,” Marenai said.

The U.S. and other NATO countries are pressuring Hamid Karzai to clean up corruption in his government.

Over 1,000 American soldiers have died in Afghanistan so far.