Safeguarding the security of Afghanistan: The Afghan National Army (ANA)
Soldiers from the Afghan National Army train and patrol the region for anti-government personnel. The ANA plans to expand to become a 250,000 man strong force by 2014. 14/03/10, Afghanistan.
The Afghan National Army was first established under the rule of the Emir Abdur Rahman, the leader of Afghanistan during the 1880’s and the first in line of the Barakzai dynasty. The Emir managed to pull together the tribal armies of Afghanistan to formulate a single unified force to withstand British invasion from their bases in India and returned Kandahar to Afghan rule in 1881.
Deploying the ANA to pacify the rebellions
A year after coming to power Emir Abdur Rahman had won back Kandahar from the British and returned it to Afghan rule, the ANA was deployed to pacify rebellions across the country; the Ghilzai tribe was defeated by the end of 1887, the Hazara bid for independence was finally quashed in 1892 forcing many of the ringleaders to flee to Quetta in Balochistan and the invasion of Nuristan “land of the beautiful” formerly known as “land of the heathens” (it was a region of Pagan worship) fell to Afghan rule in 1895. The army was further modernized under the King Amunallah deployed to defeat the British in the third Anglo-Afghan war in 1919
Training from the Soviet Union
In between the 1960’s and 1990’s the Afghan National Army was mostly trained and equipped by the Soviet Union with most bases located in the south to return the NWFP (North West Frontier Province) and FATA to Afghan rule.
Soviet-Afghan war
From 1979-1992 many ANA fighters (in 1979 the ANA was 100,000 soldiers strong) joined the ‘mujahadeen’ an army of Afghan fighters that rebelled against the Soviet invasion and the people that had once trained them.
Civil War
After the ‘majahadeen’ defeated the Soviets the rebels fought over the control of the country, by enlarge due to foreign sponsorship with their own interests to advance in the region. From 1996 (The Taliban Years) the Taliban army was trained by the Pakistani Secret Service (ISI) and veteran ‘mujahadeen’ fighters.
Training from the USA and their allies
The first battalion of the new era ANA was 1,700 soldiers strong with regional armies vastly outnumbering the national army - at the end of 2009 the ANA reached the 90,000 man mark with plans by President Obama and the ANA General Wardak to extend to 250,000 by 2014.
Photos by Russell Gilchrest and David Jackson.
