201st Corps ( Afghanistan ) The 201st ' Selab ' ( ' Flood ' ) Corps of the Afghan National Army is a corps - sized formation created from 2004 . The establishment of the corps started when the first commander and some of his staff were appointed on 1 September 2004 . Its headquarters are at Pol - e - Charkhi , near Kabul . The corps is responsible for the east of the country ( Kabul , Logar , Kapisa , Nuristan , Kunar , and Laghman provinces ) . 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 and Soviet - built main battle tanks . 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 . Its 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 . As of 2009 , 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 . A new fourth brigade of the corps was planned to be established in the province of Nuristan . By 2013 , the 4th Brigade , 201st Corps , had its headquarters near Jalalabad . In February 2008 , Marine Colonel 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 . . by providing military advice and training guidance " to its officers and staff noncommissioned officers . " The 201st Corps is very good , " Colonel 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 ; casualties included one French and four ANA soldiers killed , with 37 opponents killed in action . Previous Afghan Ground Forces in the Kabul Area . Previous Afghan formations in the Kabul area included the Central Army Corps , from at least 1978 through the 1990s , and possibly earlier . The Central Army Corps was a very influential formation . In 1953 , Lieutenant General Mohammed Daoud Khan , first cousin of the King who had previously served as Minister of Defence , was transferred from command of the Central Corps in Kabul to become Prime Minister of Afghanistan . His command has also been referred to as the Central Command and Central Forces . The Central Corps was headquartered at Amanullah ' s Darulaman Palace . On the opening day of Parliament in October 1965 , a violent student demonstration among which Babrak Karmal was at the forefront forced Zahir Shah ' s new prime minister Yousef to resign . Two students were killed when the new corps commander , General Abdul Wali , sent in troops to restore order . In 1978 the corps consisted of the 7th and 8th Divisions , the Republican Guard Brigade , two commando regiments , the 4th and 15th Armoured Brigades , and several support units . The 4th Armoured Brigade played a key role in spearheading the Saur Revolution of 1978 . An accessible " Kabul Times " article of the period describes what it claims as the 15th Armoured Division ' s celebrations of the Saur Revolution , and gives the division commander ' s name as Major Mohammed Amin . 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 , maybe 2000 strong , reportedly joined the mujahadeen . Reportedly they surrendered on the condition that they be allowed to keep their uniforms and weapons and join the anti - government struggle . " As late as September 1982 , " the commander of the Central Corps , a General variously reported as Wodud ( Joes ) or Abdul Wadood ( Yousaf and Adkin ) , was shot in his office . The 8th Division is extensively referenced in Ali A . Jalali and Lester Grau ' s " Afghan Guerrilla Warfare : In the Words of the Mujahideen Fighters " , c . 2001 . In response to a Taliban attack towards Herat from the south in March – April 1995 , the Kabul government airlifted a reported 2 , 000 troops from the Central Corps to Herat . This was the first airlift of its kind since 1992 . BBC ' s Summary of World Broadcasts for 1999 reports a radio transcript from Kabul noting that the former commander of the Central Corps , Mola Abdurraof Akhond , was appointed a commander elsewhere . The Central Corps appears to have been reactivated in August 2003 . The creation of the corps was planned to place army brigades under a central command structure for the first time , and create a command and control headquarters . Maj Gen Mohammed Moiun Faqir , an ethnic Pashtun , was appointed as corps commander . 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 . In March 2004 , fighting between two local militias took place in Herat . It was reported that Mirwais Sadiq ( son of warlord Ismail Khan ) was assassinated in unclear circumstances . Thereafter a bigger conflict began that resulted in the death of up to 100 people . The battle was between troops of Ismail Khan and Abdul Zahir Nayebzada , a senior local military commander blamed for the death of Sadiq . Nayebzada commanded the 17th Herat Division of the Defence Ministry ' s 4th Corps . In response to the fighting , about 1 , 500 newly trained Central Corps soldiers were sent to Herat in order to bring the situation under control . Following the crash of Kam Air Flight 904 in 2005 , ISAF made numerous unsuccessful helicopter rescue operation attempts . ANA soldiers also searched for the plane . The Ministry of Defense ordered the ANA ' s Central Corps to assemble a team to attempt a rescue of victims presumed to be alive . The crash site was at an altitude of on the peak of the Chaperi Mountain , east of Kabul .