Afghan National Army Commando Corps

The first Commando battalion was formed from existing infantry battalions. In early 2007, a program began to take one conventional infantry kandak (battalion) from each of the regional ANA corps, give them special training and equipment, and reorganize them based on the 75th Ranger Regiment of the United States Army. Each battalion was assigned to one of the six regional corps.

Training was conducted at the Morehead Commando Training Center (Rish Khor camp), a longtime former Afghan Army installation located ten kilometres (six miles) south of Kabul. The camp was reported as being in either Wardak Province or Kabul Province.[8]

The 12-week course ran three separate training programmes for different parts of the nascent unit at the same time. The primary and bulk of the training was geared for the infantry toli (company), with a focus on individual skills and small unit tactics. To support the fighting companies, the Headquarters and Headquarters Toli received other training such as in mortars, medical care, and communications. The third section focused on the kandak staff, and their command and control functions.[9]

The unit recruits from all over Afghanistan from various Afghan Army units, taking in prospective Pashtuns, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek and Turkmen to prevent forms of tribal allegiance and bias.[7]

The first Commando Kandak graduated on July 24, 2007, with Col. Fareed Ahmadi as the kandak commander.[10] Upon graduation, each Commando Kandak returned to its designated corps area along with an embedded U.S. Army Special Forces A-Team, and began going through an 18-week cycle: six weeks each of train-up, missions and recovery. 3rd Special Forces Group and 7th Special Forces Group rotated responsibility to train and advise in Afghanistan.[11]

While the original International Security Assistance Force plan was for one Brigade with six Kandaks (Battalions), the ANA had originally wanted a full division with three Brigades and 15 Kandaks.[12]

During the 2021 Taliban offensive, 22 Commandos were executed by the Taliban in the Faryab Province after surrendering.[13] While the Taliban were known to show leniency to normal ANA troops, Commandos and Air Force pilots were especially targeted by the Taliban.[14]

Some remnants of the ANA regrouped in the Panjshir Valley, where they joined the anti-Taliban National Resistance Front of Afghanistan. Around 500–600 remaining Afghan troops, made up mostly of Afghan Commandos, were reported to have refused to surrender to the Taliban in Kabul, and instead joined up with US forces in at Kabul International Airport, helping them secure the outer perimeter of the airport during the evacuation in August 2021. According to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, the US will evacuate these remaining Afghan troops to safety if they wish to leave Afghanistan when the evacuation operation ends.[15]

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• Neville, Leigh (2019). The Elite: The A–Z of Modern Special Operations Forces. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1472824295.