Afghan National Army

Afghan National Army
Soldiers of the Afghan National Army, including Commandos standing in the front.
Active	1747 (268 years)
Country	Afghanistan
Branch	Afghan Armed Forces
Type	Army
Size	183,000
Headquarters	Kabul
Colors	Black, Red and Green
Anniversaries	Victory Day parade Independence Day
Equipment	T-62, T-55 MBT (IISS 2010) 1,043+ IFVs & APCs
Commanders
Chief of Staff	General Qadam Shah Shahim
Deputy Chief of Staff	General Murad Ali Murad
Insignia
Identification symbol

The Afghan National Army (ANA) is the main branch of the Afghan Armed Forces, responsible for ground warfare. It is under the Ministry of Defense in Kabul and is trained by NATO forces, primarily the United States. The ANA is divided into six regional Corps, with the 201st in Kabul followed by the 203rd in Gardez, 205th in Kandahar, 207th in Herat, 209th in Mazar-i-Sharif and the 215th in Lashkar Gah. The current Chief of Staff of the ANA is General Qadam Shah Shahim.

Afghanistan's army traces its roots to the early 18th-century when the Hotaki dynasty was established in Kandahar followed by Ahmad Shah Durrani's rise to power. It was reorganized in 1880 during Emir Abdur Rahman Khan's reign. Afghanistan remained neutral during the First and Second World Wars. From the 1960s to the early 1990s, the Afghan army was equipped by the Soviet Union. After the collapse of Mohammad Najibullah's government in 1992, the army fragmented into militias under various regional warlords. After the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001, NATO nations revived the Afghan army.