Strategic depthStrategic depth is a term in military literature that broadly refers to the distances between the front lines or battle sectors and the combatants' industrial core areas, capital cities, heartlands, and other key centers of population or military production. The key precepts any military commander must consider when dealing with strategic depth are how vulnerable these assets are to a quick, preemptive attack or to a methodical offensive and whether a country can withdraw into its own territory, absorb an initial thrust, and allow the subsequent offensive to culminate short of its goal and far from its source of power.
AfghansAfghans (افغانان; Persian/افغان ها; افغانستانی) or Afghan people are nationals or citizens of Afghanistan, or people with ancestry from there. Afghanistan is made up of various ethnicities, of which Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks are the largest. The two main languages spoken by Afghans are Pashto and Dari (the Afghan dialect of the Persian language), and many Afghans are bilingual in speaking fluent Pashto and Dari.
Democratic Republic of AfghanistanThe Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA), renamed the Republic of Afghanistan in 1987, was the Afghan state during the one-party rule of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) from 1978 to 1992. It relied heavily on assistance from the Soviet Union for most of its existence, especially during the Soviet–Afghan War. The PDPA came to power through the Saur Revolution, which ousted the regime of the unelected autocrat Mohammed Daoud Khan; he was succeeded by Nur Muhammad Taraki as the head of state and government on 30 April 1978.
AfridiThe Afrīdī (اپريدی Aprīdai, plur. اپريدي Aprīdī; آفریدی) are a Pashtun tribe present in Pakistan. The Afridis are most dominant in the Spin Ghar range west of Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, covering most of the Khyber Pass and Maidan in Tirah. Afridi migrants are also found in India, mostly in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir. Herodotus, in his Histories, mentions a tribe named Aparytai (Ἀπαρύται) inhabiting the Achaemenid satrapy of Arachosia.
Hotak dynastyThe Hotak dynasty ( ) was an Afghan monarchy founded by Ghilji Pashtuns that briefly ruled portions of Iran and Afghanistan during the 1720s. It was established in April 1709 by Mirwais Hotak, who led a successful revolution against the declining Persian Safavid empire in the region of Loy Kandahar ("Greater Kandahar") in what is now southern Afghanistan. In 1715, Mirwais died of natural causes and his brother Abdul Aziz succeeded him. He did not reign long as he was killed by his nephew Mahmud, who deposed the Safavid shah and proclaimed his own rule over Iran.
WaziristanWaziristan (Pashto and , "land of the Wazir") is a mountainous region covering the former FATA agencies of North Waziristan and South Waziristan which are now the districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Waziristan covers around . The area is populated by ethnic Pashtuns. It is named after the Wazir tribe. The language spoken in the valley is predominantly Pashto of the Waziri dialect. The region forms the southern part of Pakistan's former Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which is now part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.