Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
اسلامي امارت وسله وال ځواکونه
The coat of arms of the Islamic Emirate serves as the badge for all branches of the armed forces
Motto	Pashto: الارض لله والحكم لله ("The land belongs to Allah, the rule belongs to Allah")
Founded	8 November 2021; 4 months ago (2021-11-08)
Service branches	Air Force of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Army of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Special Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
Headquarters	Kabul
Leadership
Leader	Hibatullah Akhundzada
Prime Minister	Hasan Akhund (acting)
Minister of Defence	Mohammad Yaqoob (acting)
Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces	Qari Fasihuddin (acting)
Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force	Amanuddin Mansoor
Personnel
Military age	18 (voluntary)
Active personnel	385,000 (2021)[1][2]
Related articles
History	Military history of Afghanistan Soviet–Afghan War War in Afghanistan

The Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan^[3](Pashto: اسلامي امارت وسله وال ځواکونه), also known as the Islamic Emirate Armed Forces, is the military of Afghanistan, ruled by the Taliban government since August 2021. During the Taliban’s first government from 1996 to 2001, the armed forces were called the Islamic Army of Afghanistan.^[4] The Islamic Army of Afghanistan was created in 1997 after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan following the end of the Afghan Civil War, however the army was dissolved in 2001 after the first Taliban army and government was destroyed following the United States invasion of Afghanistan. It was officially reestablished on November 8, 2021 after the Taliban's victory in the War in Afghanistan on August 15, 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.

History (1997–2001)[]

The previous Taliban maintained 400 T-54/55 and T-62 tanks and more than 200 armoured personnel carriers.^[5][6] The Taliban also began training its own army and commanders. After the removal of the Taliban government in late 2001, private armies loyal to warlords gained more and more influence. In mid-2001, Ali Jalali wrote:^[7]

The army (as a state institution, organized, armed, and commanded by the state) does not exist in Afghanistan today. Neither the Taliban-led "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" nor the "Islamic State of Afghanistan" headed by the ousted President Rabbani has the political legitimacy or administrative efficiency of a state. 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. Many of them feel free to switch sides, shift loyalties, and join or leave the group spontaneously. The country suffers from the absence of a top political layer capable of controlling individual and group violence. ... Although both sides identify their units with military formations of the old regime, there is hardly any organizational or professional continuity from the past. But these units really exist in name only ... in fact only their military bases still exist, accommodating and supporting an assortment of militia groups.

The Afghan Air Force under the previous Taliban maintained five supersonic MiG-21MFs and 10 Sukhoi-22 fighter-bombers.^[8] They also held six Mil Mi-8 helicopters, five Mi-35s, five L-39Cs, six An-12s, 25 An-26s, a dozen An-24 and An-32s, an IL-18, and a Yakovlev. Their civil air service contained two Boeing 727A/Bs, a Tu-154, five An-24s, and a DHC-6.

Taliban patrolling the streets of Kabul following its fall, 2021

On 3 August 1995, a incident involving Taliban’s Afghan Air Force MiG-21 aircraft forced a Russian Ilyushin 76 cargo plane carrying arms from Albania to Afghanistan to land at Kandahar.^[9][10] Negotiations between the Russian government and the Taliban to free the men stalled for over a year and efforts by American senator Hank Brown to mediate between the two parties broke down over a prisoner exchange.^[11] Brown was able to get the Taliban to agree that the Russian crew should be allowed to maintain their aircraft.^[11] This request paved the way for their escape.^[11]

Service branches[]

Army[]

The army under the Taliban Islamic Movement was inaugurated as the Army of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, or Islamic Emirate Army on November 8, 2021. To date, the army itself relies heavily on captured hardware from the defeated Afghan National Army. Approximately 2,000 vehicles fell into Taliban hands after the Fall of Kabul, including the Humvee, M1117 Guardian, MaxxPro MRAP and Oshkosh ATV. In terms of infantry equipment, captured items include the M4 carbine, M16 rifle, night-vision goggles, body armor suits, communication equipment and shoulder-mounted grenade launchers. These U.S. made firearms are reportedly replacing Russian made AK-47s and AK-74s carried by most Taliban fighters.^[12]

From 1 September 2021 to 10 January 2022, 15,102 newly trained fighters were inducted into the Islamic Emirate Army as calculated on the official site, the average number of new soldiers inducted is 120 soldiers per week not counting paramilitaries.^{[citation needed]}

Currently the conventional land forces of the Islamic Emirate Army are subdivided into eight corps, mostly superseding the previous corps of the former Afghan National Army. The conventional land warfare corps of the Islamic Emirate Army are renamed in November 2021 by Mohammad Yaqub Mujahid, Acting Minister of Defense.^[13] They are listed below.^[14]

All the corps beyond Kabul can be definitively tied to previous Afghan National Army (ANA) formations. However the number '313' was not utilized by the ANA, in Kabul or beyond, and the only former Taliban unit with that number was the Badri 313 Battalion.

Special forces[]

The armed forces is also made up the Special Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan ,^[18] some of which have close ties to and are trained by the Haqqani Network. These units include which:

Air Force[]

The Taliban created and ran a small air force in from 1996 to 2001. After the re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul during the 2021 Taliban offensive, the Taliban established the Air Force of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,^[22][23] which is also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Air Force. The air force acquired UH-60 Black Hawks, Mil Mi-24s (most of them without engines), Mil Mi-8s/Mil Mi-17s, A-29 Super Tucanos, Cessna 208s, and C-130 Hercules.

On 11 January 2022, the air force successfully repaired and flew unserviceable aircraft which were abandoned by the US Army and the former Afghan National Army after Kabul fell to the Taliban, making the Islamic Emirate stronger.^{[24][clarification needed]} A new Taliban commander of the Afghan Air Force spoke as part of the announcement.

Conscription[]

According to the testimony of Guantanamo detainees before their Combatant Status Review Tribunals, the Taliban, in addition to conscripting men to serve as soldiers, also conscripted men to staff its civil service.^[25]

Conscription of children[]

According to a report from the University of Oxford, the Taliban made widespread use of the conscription of children in 1997, 1998 and 1999. During the civil war that preceded the Taliban regime, thousands of orphaned boys joined various militia for "employment, food, shelter, protection and economic opportunity." The report said that during its initial period the Taliban "long depended upon cohorts of youth". Witnesses stated that each land-owning family had to provide one young man and $500 in expenses. In August, of that year 5000 students aged between 15 and 35 left madrassas in Pakistan to join the Taliban.^[26]

Equipment[]

References[]