AK-47

The AK-47 is a Soviet assault rifle designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It first entered Soviet army service in 1949 and soon spread around the world. Afghanistan received large numbers of the rifle from the Soviet Union during the Cold War, when the two countries became close allies.

The AK-47 became the standard rifle of the Afghan army in the 1960s and 1970s. It fires a 7.62mm bullet and can fire automatically or one shot at a time. The rifle is famous for being simple, strong, and almost impossible to break. It keeps working in dust, mud, and freezing mountain weather, which made it perfect for Afghanistan's harsh landscape.

During the Soviet-Afghan War of the 1980s, both sides used the AK-47. The Soviet army carried modern versions of the rifle, while the mujahideen fighters used captured guns, plus AK-47s supplied by the United States, China, Egypt, and Pakistan through secret aid channels.

After the Soviet withdrawal, the AK-47 remained the most common weapon in the country. It stayed in the hands of every Afghan fighting force, from the civil war period to the conflicts after 2001. Today the AK-47 is one of the most recognized symbols of war in Afghanistan.