DTN News - SPECIAL REPORT: *Afghan National Army (ANA) ~ Afghanistan In Pictures Of The Day - December 22, 2010

Defense News: DTN News - SPECIAL REPORT: *Afghan National Army (ANA) ~ Afghanistan In Pictures Of The Day - December 22, 2010

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - December 22, 2010: The Afghan National Army (ANA) is divided into five combat Corps. The Corps function as regional commands and are deployed throughout the country. In addition to the 201st Corps in Kabul, the 203rd in based in Gardez, the 205th Corps is based in Kandahar, the 207th Corps is based in Herat, the 209th Corps is based in Mazar-e-Sharif. The kandak, or battalion, of 600 troops is the basic unit of the ANA. Most kandaks are infantry units. As of April 2009, there were roughly 80,000 soldiers in the ANA.

The U.S. with the help of international partners including the U.K, France, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Romania, Bulgaria and Mongolia are tasked with creating a functional Afghan National Army. The Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan (CSTC-A) has the primary responsibility for training and mentoring of the ANA while formal training courses are administered at the Kabul Military Training Center (KMTC), National Military Academy of Afghanistan (NMAA), or Command and General Staff College (CGSC).

While CSTC-A has primary responsibility for managing the training and mentoring of all ANA forces, CJTF-Phoenix, under the CSTC-A command, has the specific responsibility to “mentor the ANA in leadership, staff , and support functions; planning, assessing, supporting, and execution of operations; and training doctrine, tactics, techniques, and procedures.”

Currently, Task Force Phoenix has one brigade-sized element and resources from the Air Force, Navy, Marines and various contractors. The increase in forces over the course of 2009 will nearly double the troops in TF-Phoenix.

After 5 years of training, mentoring and capacity building, the ANA has begun to show substantive, measurable results. In 2007, the ANA led 45 percent of all operations, participating and assisting in many more. This grew to 62 percent in the spring and summer of 2008, as the ANA is increasingly capable of leading operations.

Afghan National Army (ANA) officers salute during a graduation ceremony at Ghazi Military Training Center in Kabul on December 22, 2010. The ANA currently numbers 100,000 troops, with plans for it to grow to 240,000 by 2011, funded by NATO and the US, in the hope that rapid improvement in their performance can see foreign forces start to draw down. Limited withdrawals are expected to start next July, with responsibility for security being handed to Afghan forces in 2014, although Obama has acknowledged that combat troops might remain into 2015.

Photo from Getty Images

Khatol Mohammad Zai, Afghanistan's first female parachutist and general in the Afghan national army, salutes for the playing of national anthem during a gathering organized by Afghan Women Association inKabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010. Afghanistan has changed dramatically since Zai joined the armed forces with hundreds of other women in the early 1980s to prop up the pro-Moscow regime. During that earlier war, entire villages were flattened to stop civilian support for U.S.-backed Muslim insurgents who eventually forced Soviet troops to withdraw. As a woman, Zai was not allowed to fight.President Karzai promoted her from colonel to general after she parachuted into Kabul during a festival commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the end of communist rule.

Photo from AP Photo

Afghan National Army (ANA) officers perform the Afghan folk dance 'Atan' during a graduation ceremony at Ghazi Military Training Center inKabul on December 22, 2010. The ANA currently numbers 100,000 troops, with plans for it to grow to 240,000 by 2011, funded by NATO and the US, in the hope that rapid improvement in their performance can see foreign forces start to draw down. Limited withdrawals are expected to start next July, with responsibility for security being handed to Afghan forces in 2014, although Obama has acknowledged that combat troops might remain into 2015.

Photo from Getty Images

Smoke comes out of a NATO's fuel tanker after, as Afghan soldiers walk around the tanker in Behsud district of Nangarhar province, east ofKabul,Afghanistan, Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010. A fuel tanker was ablaze in Nangarhar and officials said they believed a bomb had gone off inside or near the truck, sparking the fire in Behsud district. Two suspects have been arrested, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the Nangarhar government. No one was injured, he said.

Photo from AP Photo

Local residents look at burning oil tankers carrying fuel supplies for NATO forces, caused by a militant attack near Jamrud, in the Khyber tribal region along the Afghan border, Monday, Dec. 20, 2010. A Pakistani government official says militants have fired rockets at a NATO convoy carrying supplies toAfghanistan, destroying two oil tankers and wounding two people.

Photo from AP Photo

Afghan National Army soldier Nazir listens to the radio while watching the US soldiers from Alpha Troop 1-75 Cavalry 2nd Brigade 101st Airborne Devision build a roof at the Sabloghay Camp in Zari district of Kandahar province on December 19, 2010. US military leaders back the government's plan for the Afghan police and army to assume responsibility for security by 2014, with the timetable agreed at a majorNATOsummit in Lisbon last month.

Photo from Getty Images

*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com

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