ANA Commando Battalion
Encyclopedia
The ANA Commando Brigade are part of the Afghan National Army
Afghan National Army
The Afghan National Army is a service branch of the military of Afghanistan, which is currently trained by the coalition forces to ultimately take the role in land-based military operations in Afghanistan. , the Afghan National Army is divided into seven regional Corps. The strength of the Afghan...

 and were formed from existing Infantry battalions. The program was established in early 2007 with the intent of taking one conventional battalion from each of the ANA corps, giving them special training and equipment and reorganizing based on a United States Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers are elite members of the United States Army. Rangers have served in recognized U.S. Army Ranger units or have graduated from the U.S. Army's Ranger School...

 battalion. Each battalion is assigned to one of the five military corps.

The training is conducted at the Morehead Commando Training Center, a former Taliban training compound and is located six miles south of Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. The training center is named after 5th Special Forces Group
5th Special Forces Group (United States)
The 5th Special Forces Group is a United States Army Special Forces unit that was activated on 21 September 1961 during the Cold War.-Unit history:...

 soldier MSG Kevin Morehead, who was killed in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

 in September 2003.

The training of supply, logistics and operations is conducted by mentors from Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, United States Army Special Forces
United States Army Special Forces
The United States Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets because of their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force tasked with six primary missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action, hostage rescue, and...

, French Special Forces, ANA cadre and MPRI.

The 12 week program has three concurrent training sections for the entire course. The primary and bulk of the training is geared for the Infantry line companies with a focus on individual skills and small unit tactics. To support the line companies, the Headquarters and Headquarters Company receives special training in specific skills such as mortars, medical care, and communications. The third section focuses on the Battalion staff, their core areas of responsibility and function as the Command and Control (C2).

Upon graduation, each Commando Battalion returns to its designated Corps area along with an embedded Special Forces A-Team and begins using an 18 week training cycle that breaks down to six weeks each of train-up, missions and recovery.

Of the five active duty Special Forces Groups, 3rd Group and 7th Group have been rotating responsibility as the main effort for continued training and advising in the Afghanistan theater.

Graduating Classes

The 1st Commando Battalion (Kandak), from the 201st Corps, graduated on July 24, 2007.

The 2nd Commando Battalion, from the 203rd Corps, graduated on October 16, 2007.

The 3rd Commando Battalion, from the 205th Corps (Afghanistan)
205th Corps (Afghanistan)
The 205th 'Atul' Corps is a corps-level formation of the Afghan National Army since 2004. The establishment of the corps started when the first commander, Gul Aqa Nahib, and some of his staff were appointed on September 1, 2004. The corps was officially established in Kandahar on September 19, 2004...

, graduated on January 30, 2008.

The 4th Commando Battalion, from the 207th Corps, graduated on May 8, 2008.

The 7th Commando Battalion graduated on January 21, 2010.

Combat operations

September 2007: The first ANA Commando Battalion graduated on July 24, 2007, with Col. Fareed Ahmadi as the battalion commander. This ANA Commando Battalion conducted its first operation, a two day mission in September 2007, 30 miles southwest of Jalalabad
Jalalabad
Jalalabad , formerly called Adinapour, as documented by the 7th century Hsüan-tsang, is a city in eastern Afghanistan. Located at the junction of the Kabul River and Kunar River near the Laghman valley, Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province. It is linked by approximately of highway with...

 in the Sherzad district of Nangarhar province
Nangarhar Province
Nangarhar is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan in the east of the country. Its capital is the city of Jalalabad. The population of the province is 1,334,000, which consists mainly of ethnic Pashtuns with a sizable community of Arabs and Pashais....

. There they captured two large weapons caches, over 80 kg of opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...

 and detained Haji Shir Khan, a known improvised explosive device
Improvised explosive device
An improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action...

 maker.
November 2007: 3rd Company, 1st Commando Kandak (201st), conducted an air-assault raid at dawn on the compound of a high-level Taliban facilitator, kicking off a four-day offensive operation named Operation Commando Fury
Operation Commando Fury
Operation Commando Fury was a four-day Afghan military operation against the Taliban in the Kapisa Province. Six insurgents were killed and six others were captured.-Events of the operation:...

 in the Tag Ab Valley, Kapisa Province, Nov. 10-14, 2007. A joint effort by the Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army assisted the Commando battalion in disrupting the Taliban hold on the Tag Ab Valley.
December 2007: The second ANA Commando Battalion, originally from the 203rd Corps, conducted a series of raids throughout the Sabari district in Afghanistan's Khowst province, Dec. 27–28, 2007. During the operation, the force arrested a suspected major insurgent facilitator primarily associated with the Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan terrorist organization and believed to have ties to the Haqqani network terrorist group, the Taliban and al-Qaida. The combined Afghan force conducted the two-day operation without a shot being fired.

January 2008: The third ANA Commando Battalion, originally from the 205th Corps, along with Coalition forces, conducted a four-day operation to disrupt insurgents activity in the volatile Tag Ab Valley of Kapisa Province
Kapisa Province
Kapisa is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the north-east of the country. Its capital is Mahmud-i-Raqi, and other districts include Kohistan, Nijrab and Tagab. The population of Kapisa is estimated to be 364,900, although there has never been an official estimate...

 January 19–23, 2008. The 205th Commandos 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. This operation served as a graduation exercise to providing confidence in the abilities of the newly formed Commando Kandak.
February 2008: The second ANA Commando Battalion (203rd Corps), along with Coalition forces, captured a key insurgent facilitator in Khost Province
Khost Province
Khost is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the east of the country. Khost province used to be part of Paktia province in the past...

 February 9, 2008. 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.

February 2008: 1st Company of the first ANA Commando Battalion (201st), conducted a night air-assault raid in the Helmand Province
Helmand Province
Helmand is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the southwest of the country. Its capital is Lashkar Gah. The Helmand River flows through the mainly desert region, providing water for irrigation....

 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. Bari was the former governor of Helmand under the Taliban regime.

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. Bari and 29 Taliban fighters were killed during the five hour long operation. The exact date of the operation wasn't given, but was reported by CJTF-82 media center on March 1, 2008.

April 2008: One Commando Battalion (unknown designation) conducted operations in Nuristan Province on April 6, reportedly netted several members of the terrorist group Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin
Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin
The Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin is an Afghan islamist political party.The original Hezb-e-Islami was founded in 1977 by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who is now the head of HIG. The other faction is headed by Mulavi Younas Khalis who split with Hekmatyar and established his own Hezbi Islami in 1979...

(HIG). The mission led to a coalition airstrike that, along with the ground fighting, left as many as 20 insurgents dead.

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