The roots of an army in Afghanistan can be traced back to the early 18th century when the Hotak dynasty was established in Kandahar followed by Ahmad Shah Durrani's rise to power.

[9] Following the withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, in the face of a rapid Taliban offensive, the Afghan National Army largely disintegrated.

[14] The Afghan Army traces its origin to the early 18th century when the Hotak dynasty rose to power in Kandahar and defeated the Persian Safavid Empire at the Battle of Gulnabad in 1722.

Their occupation of Afghanistan was challenged after Dost Mohammad's son, Wazir Akbar Khan and the forces he led revolted against the occupying British.

[18] The success of Akbar Khan's uprising led to the 1842 retreat from Kabul where the Afghan army decimated British forces, thanks to effective use of the rugged terrain and weapons such as the Jezail.

[citation needed] 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.

[19] Jalali 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.

These included increasing the equalization of military obligation by setting up a system known as the hasht nafari (whereby one man in every eight between the ages of 20 and 40 took his turn at military service); constructing an arsenal in Kabul to reduce dependence on foreign sources for small arms and other ordnance; introducing supervised training courses; organizing troops into divisions, brigades, and regiments, including battalions of artillery; developing pay schedules; and introducing an elementary (and harsh) disciplinary system.Further improvements to the Army were made by King Amanullah Khan in the early 20th century just before the Third Anglo-Afghan War.

[23] In 1927 Afghanistan invited Turkey to send a military advisory mission, resulting in a strengthening of Afghan divisions and brigades, "augmenting each echelon headquarters with supporting staff;" and "regularizing the officer corps".

[29] On the opening day of Parliament in October 1965, a violent student demonstration among which Babrak Karmal was at the forefront forced Zahir Shah's new prime minister Yousef to resign.

The Royal Afghan Army was also photographed wearing white “snegurochka” winter suits in snowy areas of the country[31] and also had armored riverboats in their inventory, as seen in a parade in Kabul.

[32] At the time, there seems to have been significant Turkish influence in the Afghan Armed Forces, which waned quickly after the Soviet advisors arrived.

[33] In a 1961 manual titled “Royalist Regulations” for the Royal Afghan Army, there were illustrations of numerous branch insignias, denoting the specialities and the role of the soldier wearing them.

A year later, in 1981, the 203rd Separate Spetsnaz Battalion was formed (alongside the 212th, 230th and 211th) under the 1st Central Army Corps in Kabul and subordinated to KhAD-e Nezami (military intelligence).

One of the main reasons for the small size was that the Soviet military were afraid the Afghan army would defect en masse to the enemy if total personnel increased.

[57][58][59] As compensation for the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, the USSR agreed to deliver sophisticated weapons to the government, among which were large quantities of Scud surface-to-surface missiles.

On 24 April 1992, the mujahideen forces of Ahmad Shah Massoud (Jamiat-e Islami) captured the main Scud stockpile at Afshar, Kabul, belonging to the 99th Missile Brigade.

However, the missile operators managed to successfully flee and a lack of trained personnel prevented a sustained use of such weapons, and, between April 1992 and 1996, only 44 Scuds were fired in Afghanistan.

The Taliban's army and commanders placed emphasis on simplicity;[70] some were secretly trained by the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence and Pakistani Armed Forces around the Durand Line.

After the removal of the Taliban government through the United States invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, private armies loyal to warlords gained more and more influence.

The militia formations they command are composed of odd assortments of armed groups with varying level of loyalties, political commitment, professional skills, and organizational integrity.

[76] The International Crisis Group wrote:[77] New divisions and even army corps were created to recognise factional realities or undermine the power base of individual commanders, often without regard to the troop levels normally associated with such units.

The battle was between troops of Ismail Khan and Abdul Zahir Nayebzada, a senior local military commander blamed for the death of Sadiq.

In the Regional Corps, Coalition Embedded Training Teams continued to mentor the kandak's leadership, and advised them in the areas of intelligence, communications, fire support, logistics and infantry tactics.

[102] On 30 July 2013, US Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense Peter Lavoy told reporters in Washington, D.C., according to Jane's Defence Weekly, that '... a residual [US] force would be needed to help the ANSF complete more mundane tasks such as logistics, ensuring soldiers get their paychecks, procuring food, awarding fuel contracts, and more.

[113] US trainers frequently had to remove the cell phones from Afghan soldiers hours before a mission for fear that the operation would be compromised by bragging, gossip and reciprocal warnings.

The CSK role includes motor fleet maintenance, specialized communications, scouting, engineering, and long range artillery units.

At 8:55 pm local time, Taliban forces seized the Arg and raised their flag, soon afterwards declaring the restoration of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

In addition, various U.S. rifles, bulletproof vests, night vision goggles, trucks and Mine Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles entered service.

Both countries supported the Northern Alliance, with funding, training, supplies and medical treatment of wounded fighters, against the Taliban for years prior to the US-led intervention in 2001.