Afghan Armed Forces | |
---|---|
د اسلامي امارت وسله وال ځواکونه (Pashto) نیروهای مسلح امارت اسلامی افغانستان (Dari) | |
Motto | Arabic: الارض لله والحكم لله ("The land belongs to God, the rule belongs to God") |
Founded | 1997 |
Current form | 8 November 2021 |
Service branches | |
Headquarters | Kabul, Afghanistan |
Website | www |
Leadership | |
Supreme Commander | Hibatullah Akhundzada |
Head of the Military Commission | Mullah Yaqoob |
Minister of Defense | Mullah Yaqoob (acting) |
Chief of Staff | Qari Fasihuddin (acting) |
Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force | Amanuddin Mansoor |
Personnel | |
Active personnel | Disputed. Official: 170,000 (2023)[1] IISS: 165,000: 75,000 full time; 90,000 local militias (2022)[2] |
Industry | |
Foreign suppliers | Russia |
Related articles | |
History | Military history of Afghanistan |
Ranks | Military ranks of Afghanistan |
The Afghan Armed Forces, officially the Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Pashto: د اسلامي امارت وسله وال ځواکونه, Dari: نیروهای مسلح امارت اسلامی افغانستان)[3] and also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Armed Forces, is the military of Afghanistan, commanded by the Taliban government from 1997 to 2001 and since August 2021. According to Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense, its total manpower is 170,000.
The Taliban created the first iteration of the Emirate's armed forces in 1997 after taking over Afghanistan following the end of the Afghan Civil War which raged between 1992 and 1996. However, the first iteration of the armed forces was dissolved in 2001 after the downfall of the first Taliban government following the United States invasion of Afghanistan. It was officially reestablished on 8 November 2021 after the Taliban's victory in the War in Afghanistan on 15 August 2021 following the recapture of Kabul and the collapse of the U.S.-backed Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and its Afghan National Army as a whole, with the re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan after being out of power for 20 years.