Afghan Armed Forces

Afghan Armed Forces
Afghan Armed Forces
د اسلامي امارت وسله وال ځواکونه (Pashto); قوای مسلح امارت اسلامی افغانستان (Dari);
	The emblem of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan serves as the badge for all branches of the armed forces
Motto	Arabic: الارض لله والحكم لله; ("The land of God and the rule of God"); Arabic: وطن، شرف، إخلاص ("Homeland, Honor, Sincerity"); Dari: وطن یا کفن; "Homeland or the Shroud" (pre-1992)
Founded	1919 (original); 1997
Current form	8 November 2021
Service branches	Afghan Army; Afghan Air Force
Headquarters	Kabul, Afghanistan
Website	www.mod.gov.af/en
Leadership
Supreme Commander	Hibatullah Akhundzada
Minister of Defense and Head of the Military Commission	General Mullah Yaqoob
Chief of Staff	General Fasihuddin Fitrat
Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force	Amanuddin Mansur
Personnel
Active personnel	Disputed.; Official: 170,000 (2023); IISS: 165,000: 75,000 full time; 90,000 local militias (2022)
Industry
Foreign suppliers	Russia; Iran; Former suppliers:; Soviet Union; German Democratic Republic; Czechoslovak Socialist Republic; United States
Related articles
History	Military history of Afghanistan Afghan Civil War (1928–1929); Soviet–Afghan War; Afghan Civil War (1989–1992); Afghan Civil War (1992–1996); Afghan Civil War (1996–2001); War in Afghanistan (2001–2021); Republican insurgency in Afghanistan; Islamic State–Taliban conflict; Afghanistan–Pakistan clashes (2024–present) 2026 Afghanistan–Pakistan war; ;
Ranks	Military ranks of Afghanistan

The Afghan Armed Forces, officially the Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي امارت وسله وال ځواکونه, Dari: قوای مسلح امارت اسلامی افغانستان) 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 again since August 2021.

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.

Reporting from 2022–23 placed armed forces and associated groups' personnel totals at 165,000–170,000; in 2025, reportedly Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence said total personnel numbered 100,000. Peer-reviewed publications have emphasized how Taliban forces have historically been loose and patrimonial, rather than organised and bureaucratic.