The Afghan National Army (ANA) is the main branch of the Afghan Armed Forces, responsible for ground warfare. It is under the Ministry of Defense in Kabul and is being heavily assisted by the United States and NATO. The ANA is divided into six regional Corps, with the 201st in Kabul followed by the 203rd in Gardez, 205th in Kandahar, 207th in Herat, 209th in Mazar-i-Sharif and the 215th in Lashkar Gah. The current Chief of Staff of the Afghan National Army is Lieutenant General Sher Mohammad Karimi.
Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) comprise several units including the Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, Afghan National Civil Order Police, Afghan Border Police, General Directorate of Police Special Unit, Afghan Provincial Response Company, Afghan Local Police and Afghan Partnering Unit.

The Afghan National Army Special Forces (ANASF) falls under the command of the Afghan National Army Special Operations Command (ANASOC) which is part of the Ministry of Defense (MoD). Plans for the development of the ANA Special Forces were first formulated in 2009.  The beginnings of the ANASF took place in 2010 with the first element finishing their training in May 2010. 
CJSOTF-A.  The Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force - Afghanistan was been the primary trainer of the Afghan National Army Special Forces.  At first, the CJSOTF-A was training the Afghan Army Commandos; but later decided to develop an Afghan Special Forces unit as well. The CJSOTF-A has since been replaced with a SOTF due to the drawdown of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

Organization and Size of the ANASF.  The original intent was to form and train an Afghan Special Forces Group.  It was planned to be about 72 Special Forces teams with about fifteen members on each team.  Of course there would be additional members who would serve in command, staff, and support roles.  As of December 2011 there were over 1,000 ANASF Soldiers. Later these ANASF units were merged into the nine Command kandaks (battalions) and the Commando battalions were renamed Special Operations Kandaks or SOKs. Two Special Operations Brigades were then formed for command and control of the kandaks.  

Commando units and formations are part of the Afghan National Army 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 battalion. Each battalion is assigned to one of the seven military corps. The training is conducted at the Morehead Commando Training Center, a former Taliban training compound located six miles south of Kabul, Afghanistan. The training center is named after 5th Special Forces Group soldier MSG Kevin Morehead, who was killed in Iraq in September 2003. The training of supply, logistics and operations has been conducted by mentors from Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, United States Army Special Forces, French Special Forces, ANA cadre and Military Professional Resources Inc. (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 theate.