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The Afghan National Army (ANA) is the main branch of the Afghan Armed Forces, which is being trained and advised by NATO's Resolute Support Mission. The ANA is under the Afghan Ministry of Defense in Kabul, responsible for ground warfare. It 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 Afghan National Army is Lieutenant 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.〔Library of Congress Country Study Afghanistan, 1986, 290-291.〕 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 regime in 1992, the army fragmented into militias under various regional warlords. This was followed by the Taliban government in the mid-1990s, which was overthrown and replaced by a new government under President Hamid Karzai. To thwart and dissolve illegal armed groups, the Karzai administration began offering cash and vocational training to encourage members to join the army. NATO has expanded the Afghan armed forces to about 200,000 active personnel by 2015. There were more than 4,000 United States armed forces trainers in late 2009 and additional numbers from other NATO member states, providing training to the Afghan armed forces. The majority of training of the ANA was undertaken in the newly established Afghan National Security University. As of 2015, all areas of Afghanistan are under Afghan control with ISAF playing a training and advising role. ==History== Historically, Afghans have served in the army of the Ghaznavids (963–1187), Ghurids (1148–1215), Delhi Sultanate (1206–1527), and the Mughals (1526–1858). The current Afghan army traces its origin to the early 18th century when the Hotaki dynasty rose to power in Kandahar and defeated the Persian Safavid Empire at the Battle of Gulnabad in 1722. When Ahmad Shah Durrani formed the Durrani Empire in 1747, the Afghan army fought a number of battles in the Punjab region of Hindustan during the 18th to the 19th century. One of the famous battles was the 1761 Battle of Panipat in which the Afghan army decisively defeated the Hindu Maratha Empire. The Afghans then fought with the British-backed Sikh Empire until finally defeating them in January 1842, at the end of the First Anglo-Afghan War. At the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–80), Ali Ahmad Jalali cites sources saying that the regular army was about 50,000 strong and consisted of 62 infantry and 16 cavalry regiments, with 324 guns mostly organized in horse and mountain artillery batteries.〔Ali Ahmad Jalali, Parameters, 2002.〕 Sedra cites Jalali, who writes that '..although Amir Shir Ali Khan (1863–78) is widely credited for founding the modern Afghan army, it was only under Abdur Rahman that it became a viable and effective institution.〔Mark Sedra, Security Sector Reform in Afghanistan: An Instrument of the State-Building Project, in Andersen, Moller, and Stepputat, 'Fragile States and Insecure People: Violence, Security, and Statehood in the Twenty-first Century,' Palgrave McMillan, 2007, 153, citing Jalali, Parameters, 2002, 76.〕 In 1880 Amir Abdur Rahman Khan established a newly equipped Afghan Army with help from the British. The Library of Congress Country Study for Afghanistan states:〔
Further improvements to the army were made by King Amanullah Khan in the early 20th century just before the Third Anglo-Afghan War. King Amanullah fought against the British in 1919, resulting in Afghanistan becoming fully independent after the Treaty of Rawalpindi was signed. It appears from reports of Naib Sular Abdur Rahim's career that a Cavalry Division was in existence in the 1920s, with him being posted to the division in Herat Province in 1913 and Mazar-i-Sharif after 1927.〔Frank Clements, Conflict in Afghanistan: A Historical Encyclopedia, 2-3.〕 The Afghan Army was expanded during King Zahir Shah's reign, starting in 1933. In 1953, Lieutenant General Mohammed Daoud, cousin of the King who had previously served as Minister of Defence, was transferred from command of the Central Corps in Kabul to become Prime Minister of Afghanistan.〔Peter Tomsen, The Wars of Afghanistan, Public Affairs, 2011, 90.〕 Periodic border clashes with Pakistan seem to have taken place between 1950 and 1961.〔http://yalejournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Article-Gartenstein_Ross-and-Vassefi.pdf〕 From the 1960s to the early 1990s, the Afghan Army received training and equipment mostly from the Soviet Union. In February - March 1957, the first group of Soviet military specialists (about 10, including interpreters) was sent to Kabul to train Afghan officers and non-commissioned officers.〔Slinkin MF 1957. The first Afghan "landing" / / Soldier of Fortune. 2004. Number 2 (113). Pp. 13-14, via http://www.xliby.ru/istorija/sekretnye_voiny_sovetskogo_soyuzan/p10.php, accessed August 2013.〕 At the time, there seems to have been significant Turkish influence in the Afghan armed forces, which waned quickly after the Soviet advisors arrived. In the early 1970s, Soviet military assistance was increased. The number of Soviet military specialists increased from 1,500 in 1973 to 5,000 by April 1978.〔Брудерер Г. Афганская война. Frankfurt am Main. 1995. С. 43.〕 The senior Soviet specialist at this time (from 29.11.1972 till 11.12.1975) was a Major General I.S. Bondarets (И.С. Бондарец), and from 1975 to 1978, the senior Soviet military adviser was Major General L.N. Gorelov. Before the 1978 Saur Revolution, according to military analyst George Jacobs, the army included "some three armored divisions (570 medium tanks plus T 55s on order), eight infantry divisions (averaging 4,500 to 8,000 men each), two mountain infantry brigades, one artillery brigade, a guards regiment (for palace protection), three artillery regiments, two commando regiments, and a parachute battalion (largely grounded). All the formations were under the control of three corps level headquarters. All but three infantry divisions were facing Pakistan along a line from Bagram south to Khandahar."〔Library of Congress Country Studies, Afghanistan: A Country Study, American University, 1986, Chapter 5: National Security, p.288-289.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Afghan National Army」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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