The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, known as the Armed Forces of the Republic of Afghanistan after 1986, was the national military of Afghanistan from 1978 to 1992.
History
Formation of the Afghan National Guard
The Guard Regiments of the Afghan Army were established in the 1970s, under Daoud Khan and were disbanded in 1978-79 to strengthen the 8th Division’s new brigades. In 1978, the Afghan Army had its own Republican Guard Brigade, which was part of the Afghan Army under the Republic of Afghanistan. After the Saur Revolution, a violent Marxist–Leninist coup orchestrated by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan in 1978, the brigade remained as part of the army. The Republican Guard Brigade was present during the Saur Revolution Flag Raising Ceremony in 1978, alongside President Nur Muhammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin, donning Stahlhelms from the old regime with red bands, and holding the Republican-era flag of the Afghan Army. In 1983-84, the Guard Regiments were reformed due to growth in military strength during the tenure of Babrak Karmal.
In 1978, the Presidential Guard Brigade was also referred to as the 21st Guard Regiment until 1988. The 44th Guards Regiment was identified in 1979, though it may have undergoing reformation. The 22nd Guard Regiment was also present during the Second Battle of Zhawar. The brigade had various roles, such as performing ceremonial duties like military funerals, protecting monuments and the Arg Presidential Palace, and serving as guards of honour and the Presidential Guard. Additionally, the Presidential Guard and the Soviet VDV were often together near the Arg and were photographed in a “Soviet-Afghan Friendship Room”.
During the early months of Babrak Karmal’s presidency, the Presidential Guard were given a different style of uniform by April 1980, compared to the usual Afghan military dress uniform. They had their own distinct sleeve patches and cap badges, instead of the Parcham emblem worn by every branch in the Afghan Armed Forces. Both the patch and the cap badge featured the iconography of a sword going through a horse shoe, surrounded by golden wheat, making the Presidential Guard distinct from servicemen in other branches. These uniforms were temporarily used during the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan. The Presidential Guard also carried sabres for military parades, as well as Mosin–Nagant rifles with bayonets fixed to them when standing guard on parade grounds, all for ceremonial purposes.
The Presidential Guard Brigade became part of the Guards Corps established in 1988, later renamed to Special Guard, or Gard-e-Khas, along with the 22nd and 44th Guard Regiment. The name was later changed to the Afghan National Guard, or Gard-e-Mili, which consisted of the 88th Heavy Artillery Regiment and 1st Motorized Infantry Brigade, both of which also fought in Jalalabad. As a result of the disbandment of the Afghan Air Assault Brigades, the 37th and 38th Commando Battalion also became part of the National Guard, according to Urban. However, this is disputed, as Conroy states that the 37th and 38th Commando Battalion did not join the National Guard, but rather maintaining their independence and were sent to Bala Hissar Fortress. By 1988, the Afghan National Guard had approximately 14,000 officers and personnel organised into two divisions, three infantry brigades, an artillery battalion, a SCUD battalion, and various other units, all equipped with modern weapons and equipment. The force was headquartered at Bala Hissar Fort, significantly enhancing its defensive presence.
Mass killings of DRA military personnel In 2005, Afghan Interior Minister Yousuf Stanizai issued a statement that a burial site had been found in the province of Paktia, containing the bodies of 530 soldiers from the DRA army who were executed after surrendering to Mujahideen forces in the area. This was soon followed by the discovery of another burial site in the same area, which contained over 1,000 bodies of DRA soldiers and officers..
According to the province's governor at the time, the burial sites contained soldiers of the Afghan Army's 9th Brigade, identified by the remains of their military uniforms. These soldiers were killed by fighters belonging to Afghan mujahideen field commanders after the brigade had been disbanded.Происшествия // «Зарубежное военное обозрение», No. 11 (704), 2005. стр. 76
In 1985, during the Panjshir offensives, corpses of Afghan Army troops, as well as the corpses of PDPA party members, ordinary people, and parents who allowed their sons to join the Afghan Armed Forces, were discovered by the Soviet Army and detachments of Afghan paratroopers in Panjshir, more specifically in the “Safed-Chi” gorge. The corpses were subsequently dragged out and laid in straight lines after their discovery. Kabul National TV and Soviet media from the State Television and Radio Fund claimed that these soldiers and civilians were initially prisoners who were dragged down the stairs in the area before being locked in underground prisons, tortured, and denied food and water before being executed by the Mujahideen in Panjshir. An Afghan paratrooper interviewed at the site of the massacre claimed that 264 people died in the killings perpetrated by Jamiat-e Islami altogether.. —Time stamp 11:36.
Structure On 9 January 1980, a law on universal conscription was adopted, allowing the government to draft men aged 20 to 40 years old into the army. Subsequently, the law was amended.В. В. Басов, Г. А. Поляков. Афганистан: трудные судьбы революции. М., «Знание», 1988. стр. 42
The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan included:
Ministry of Defense Afghan Army Afghan Air Force and Air Defense Afghan Border Troops Moved to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in 1983, reverted back to MoD control Military educational institutions KhAD Special/National Guard KhAD Special Forces Battalions (attached to every province in Afghanistan) 904th Battalion However, it is reported that KhAD-i-Nezami was the military intelligence branch of the Afghan Army, separate from KhAD.
Armed formations of the Ministry of Interior (Sarandoy) Civil defense detachments Revolution Defense Groups Defense of the Revolution (1978-1979) Pader Watan Local Self-Defense Militias
Creation and staffing of civil defense detachments were carried out on a territorial basis. In comparison to the Afghan Army, these civil defense detachments were equipped with older WW II-era surplus weapons, especially during the early part of the war, such as the PPSh-41. The first rural self-defense units were created in April–May 1980, in the Surkh-Rōd District of Nangarhar Province by residents of the villages of Hatyrkhel, Ibrahimkhel and Umarkhel.Т. А. Гайдар. Под афганским небом: записки военного корреспондента. М., «Советская Россия», 1981. стр. 36–37
In the summer of 1980, the creation of other units began. In December 1983, the unification of territorial self-defense units into a civil defense system began.Защищая революцию // «Красная звезда», No. 296 (18283) от 27 декабря 1983. стр. 3 The Afghan Border Guard additionally had their own anthem.
Army Corps In 1978, the 1st Army Corps, also referred to as the Central Corps, was stationed in Kabul. The 2nd Army Corps was stationed in Kandahar, and the 3rd Army Corps was stationed in Gardez. By the spring of 1992, the Afghan Army consisted of six corps in total with the 1st now being stationed in Jalalabad, the 4th stationed in Herat, the 5th in Charikar, and the 6th Corps at Kunduz.
All three corps of the Afghan Army had their own “Special Purpose Battalions (SpN)”, that had ties to the Intelligence Directorate of the Afghan Army (KhAD-e-Nezami). The 203rd SpN was tied to the 1st Army Corps, the 212th SpN was tied to the 3rd Army Corps, and the 230th SpN was tied to the 2nd Army Corps. SpN operators took part in the Marmoul offensives alongside the KGB Border Guard, the Battles of Zhawar, and Operation Magistral. Mark Urban referred to the SpN as “Reconnaissance Battalions”. It is unlikely that the three newer corps had their own Special Purpose Battalions during the spring of 1992, due to the government nearing complete collapse.
Infantry divisions
The Afghan Army had 13 infantry divisions, with two separate divisions, such as:
2nd Infantry Division (Parwan) 64th Regiment (Panjshir) 10th Brigade (Panjshir) 444th Commando Battalion (Panjshir) 7th Infantry Division (Kabul) 65th Brigade South Kabul, Kandahar-Ghazni highway 8th Infantry Division (Kabul in 1979, Bagram in 1986, Qergha in 1988) 4th Regiment (Kabul) 5th Regiment (Kabul) 72nd Brigade (Kabul) 9th Infantry Division (Asadabad, Kunar) 31st Mountain Brigade (Asmar) 55th Brigade (Barikot) 69th Brigade (Chugha Serai) 46th Artillery Regiment (Chugha Serai) 11th Infantry Division (Jalalabad) 32nd Brigade (Jalalabad) 81st Brigade (Hadda) 71st Brigade (Ghanikhel) 91st Artillery Regiment (Jalalabad) 211th Separate Special Forces Battalion 61st Separate Infantry Division 12th Infantry Division (Gardez) 67th Brigade (Gardez) 36th Regiment (Jaji) 22nd Guard Brigade 15th Brigade (Urgun) 14th Infantry Division (Ghazni) 3rd Brigade (Ghazni) Unknown regiment (Bamiyan) 40th Regiment (Paktia) 15th Infantry Division (Kandahar) 36th Brigade (Kandahar) 43rd Mountain Regiment (Zabul) Unknown brigade (Girishk, Helmand) 17th Infantry Division (Herat) 28th Brigade (Herat) 33rd Brigade (Qala-Yi-Naw, Badghis) 2nd Regiment (Chakhcharan, Ghor) Reportedly, the 17th Division was sent to halt the 1979 Herat uprising, but due to the lack of Khalq party members in the division, they mutinied. 18th Infantry Division (Mazar-i-Sharif) 62nd Mechanised Regiment (Mazar-i-Sharif) 35th Regiment (Sheberghan, Faryab) Unknown mountain battalion (Mazar-i-Sharif) 19th Infantry Division (Faizabad, Badakhshan, 1986) 20th Infantry Division (Nahrin, Baghlan) 23rd Brigade (Baghlan) 75th Brigade (Iskhamish, Takhar) 25th Infantry Division (Khost, Paktia) 19th Brigade (Khost) 59th Brigade (Nadir Shah Kot) 23rd Brigade (Khost) 6th Artillery Regiment Under the Presidency of Mohammad Najibullah in 1988, several new divisions were formed from local pro-government militia formations, such as the 53rd Infantry Division (also known as the “Jowzjani” militia) led by Abdul Rashid Dostum and a division in either Helmand or Kandahar led by Abdul Jabar Qahraman. These new divisions were the:
55th Division 80th Division 93rd Division 94th Division 95th Division 96th Division
Additionally, there could have been a possible division in Lashkar-Gah, Helmand Province.
Brigades
The Armed Forces of the DRA had 22 brigades altogether, consisting of combined arms, tank, artillery, and commando brigades; a Republican guard brigade in 1978 (which became part of the Afghan National Guard in 1988); and an air defense brigade, border, and army logistics brigades.
Commando Brigades
The Afghan Commando Brigades were attached to the Afghan Army. Some were under the control of KhAD-i-Nezami (the Afghan Army’s military intelligence wing), having airborne assault capabilities until 1988, just before the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.
37th Commando Battalion (Kabul, 1986) Formerly the 26th Airborne Regiment 38th Commando Battalion (Parwan, 1986) 200th Reconnaissance Battalion 201st Commando Battalion 444th Commando Battalion (Kabul, 1979, Panjshir, 1986) 666th Commando Battalion (Paktia, 1986) 665th Commando Battalion (Kandahar International Airport) 866th Commando Battalion (Herat) 466th Commando Battalion (outskirts of East Kandahar) 84th Commando Battalion (formed in 1987) 85th Commando Battalion (formed in 1987) A possible 344th Commando Battalion in 1980 625th Operative Battalion 626th Operative Battalion 627th Operative Battalion 628th Operative Battalion 629th Operative Battalion