The 201st 'Selab' Corps of the Afghan National Army is a corps-sized formation created from 2004. [1] The establishment of the corps started when the first commander and some of his staff were appointed on 1 September 2004.[2] Its headquarters are at Pol-e-Charkhi, near Kabul. The corps is responsible for the east of the country (Kabul, Logar, Kapisa, Konar, and Laghman provinces), partnered with the International Security Assistance Force's Regional Command East. The corps is now led by Major General Mohammad Mangal.
The corps' 1st Brigade is at the Presidential Palace. 3rd Brigade, at Pol-e-Charkhi, is to be a mechanised formation including M-113s[3] and Soviet-built main battle tanks.[4] Later information from LongWarJournal.com places most of the 3rd Brigade at Jalalabad, 2nd Brigade at Pol-e-Charkhi, and only a single battalion of 1st Brigade at the Presidential Palace.[5] It’s battlespace includes the Afghan capital of Kabul as well as vital routes running north and south, and valleys leading from the Pakistani border into Afghanistan. Currently the 3rd Brigade of the 201st Corps is the only unit that has control of an area of responsibility in Afghanistan without the aid or assistance of U.S. or coalition forces.[6][7]
In February 2008, Marine Col. Jeffrey Haynes and Embedded Training Team (ETT) 3-5, a part of the Regional Corps Advisory Command-Central (RCAC-C), arrived with a mission to "mentor the 201st Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) by providing military advice and training guidance" to its officers and staff noncommissioned officers. "The 201st Corps is very good," Col. Haynes said. "When the Taliban attacked the prison in Kandahar last summer, they spearheaded the ANA effort into Anghardab and recaptured that strategic valley. [The ANA] handled their own logistics and their own intelligence." In the recent Marine-ANA-French (Groupement tactique interarmes de Kapisa) Operation Nan-e-Shab Berun, coalition and ANA forces cleared the Alah Say Valley of insurgents and then provided security and stability for the locals; casualties included one French and four ANA soldiers killed, with 37 opponents killed in action.[8]
Previous Afghan formations in the Kabul area included the Central Army Corps, from at least 1978 through the 1990s. The Central Army Corps was a very influential formation, consisting of the 7th and 8th Divisions, the Republican Guard Brigade, two commando regiments, the 4th and 15th Armoured Brigades, and several support units in 1978. The 4th Armoured Brigade played a key role in spearheading the Saur Revolution of 1978. However the Corps began to be worn away by desertions, with one of the first, involving a brigade of the 7th Division, occurring in mid-May 1979 on the road from Gardez to Khost. The whole brigade reportedly joined the mujahadeen.[9] In August 2009 soldiers of the 201st Corps came to the aid of SPC Christopher Lowe, 3rd BDE 201st Corps ETT, who was wounded during Operation Brest Thunder.
The Central Corps was still active in 2003, having seen many upheavals. It was one of the first recipients of new Afghan National Army battalions trained by the United States, with its strength in July including five to six of the new battalions within two brigades.[10]