While during its existence it was claimed the ANA Special Operations Command comprised 'only seven percent of the Afghan defense and security forces', this could've been a wishful exaggeration.

"[3] Afghanistan's ex-finance minister Khalid Payenda told the BBC that most of the 300,000 troops and police on the government's books did not exist, stating that the real size of the ANA could've been as low as 50,000 men and women.

The commandos underwent a grueling three-month course being trained by the United States Army Special Forces ("Green Berets").

The first ANA Commando Kandak conducted its first operation, a two-day mission, in September 2007, 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of Jalalabad in the Sherzad district of Nangarhar province.

There they captured two large weapons caches, over 80 kg of opium and detained Haji Shir Khan, a known improvised explosive device maker.

A joint effort by the Afghan National Police and other ANA forces assisted the Commando kandak in disrupting the Taliban hold on the Tag Ab Valley.

[14] December 2007: The second ANA Commando Kandak, originally from the 203rd Corps, conducted a series of raids throughout the Sabari district in Afghanistan's Khowst Province, Dec. 27–28, 2007.

The Third Commando Kandak patrolled the Naghlu Reservoir to the village of Jangali in order to disrupt insurgent activities in the center of the valley as the combined force moved north.

The Ministry of Defense announced that ANA forces captured a known Taliban commander, Nasimulla, during a combined operation in the Dand Faqiran area of Yaqubi District.

[17] February 2008: 1st Toli of the First ANA Commando Kandak (201st), conducted a night air-assault raid in Helmand Province to capture the Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Bari.

Bari was one of the top remaining Taliban field commanders able to launch deadly attacks in Helmand and Uruzgan province.

He led Taliban operations against the British in northern Helmand province in the Kajaki, Musa Qala, and Baghran districts.

The operation, named "Say Laab", meaning flood, utilized multiple helicopters and put over 100 commandos onto four separate targets simultaneously.

The operation captured 11 combatants as well as destroying six enemy vehicles containing thousands of pounds of weapons and munitions, as well as nearly $8 million of illegal narcotics.

The initial selection involved taking the 145 commandos who volunteered, putting them through a one-week qualification process (similar to the one used in the United States), and finding, as in the US, that only about half (69) passed.

[23] Special Forces were trained to focus on interacting with the population through jirgas with village elders, but capable of unilateral operations.

[26] As of April 2012, the reported strength of the Commandos (as opposed to the whole ANASOC) was 8,500 men organized into eight kandaks, as well as one group of 500 Special Operations troops.

The masked insurgents reportedly carried the black flag of the Islamic State, openly called themselves soldiers of Daesh, and did not speak any local languages.

However, Afghan special forces inserted by helicopter were able to reinforce units already defending the area and Ensafi reported that the "immediate threat to [the] district's center had been nullified.

[45][46] "The resulting death of 24 of the country’s most highly trained fighters became a national story—in part because the dead included Major Sohrab Azimi, a well-known special operator—and one that weighed heavily on [Army] morale.

[51] Following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, on August 17, 2021, several ANA commandos were reported to be moving to Panjshir, joining the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan.

On 1 September 2021, Forbes magazine reported that the United Kingdom was contemplating recruiting such evacuated commandos into the British Army.