Afghanistan In Pictures

Ten years ago, U.S. forces began bombing Afghanistan in retaliation against its Taliban rulers who refused to hand over the al Qaeda leaders responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Within weeks, the air strikes had helped Afghan opponents topple the Taliban, but in the decade since, the deposed Islamist fighters have returned to mount an ever more aggressive insurgency against an Afghan government backed by the United States and NATO. Since U.S. President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the U.S. force has tripled in size, but Washington and NATO now plan to begin withdrawing and to hand over responsibility for Afghanistan's security to Afghan forces by 2014.

More pictures are at  Afghanistan1.pps. Others are at Afghanistan In 1967

From Afghan war - Iconic images | Analysis & Opinion | Reuters

1 of 50 | Afghan opposition Northern Alliance soldiers run and jump as they return from a front line position after battle near the town of Charatoy in the north of Afghanistan October 10, 2001. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

They look seriously pleased to be coming out of the line. One has his safety catch on; a bit of a softy?

 

1 of 50 | A young Afghan woman shows her face in public for the first time after 5 years of Taliban Sharia law as she waits at a food distribution center in central Kabul November 14, 2001. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis

A hard woman. There is no love in her.

 

28 of 50 | A French sniper (R) looks through his rifle's scope while keeping watch over Qarabagh district, about 40 km (25 miles) north of Kabul, November 20, 2007. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

 

35 of 50 | A donkey transports ballot boxes to villages unreachable by vehicles in Panjshir province, north of Kabul September 17, 2010. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

 

3 of 50 | US Marines from Charlie 1/1 of the 15th MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) fill sand bags around their light mortar position on the front lines of the US Marine Corps base in southern Afghanistan December 1, 2001 nearby a cardboard sign reminding everyone that the Taliban forces could be anywhere and everywhere. REUTERS/Jim Hollander

 

 


The blood is fresh.

 

4 of 50 | Residents of Kabul make their way to greet Northern Alliance fighters arriving in the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul November 13, 2001. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis

 

5 of 50 | An Afghan refugee girl in the Kili Faizu UNHCR Camp in Chaman, Pakistan reacts after spotting a jet flying overhead, November 10, 2001. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

They are easy to please, sometimes.

 

6 of 50 | Anti-Taliban Afghan fighters watch several explosions from U.S. bombings in the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan December 16, 2001. REUTERS/Erik de Castro "Ten years ago I was part of the three-member Reuters multimedia team that went to Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. We covered the pursuit for Osama Bin Laden and his Taliban followers, who were believed to be holed up in the caves of the Tora Bora mountains, by US military special forces fighting alongside the Afghan Mujaheedin. Nobody from the press saw Osama. Instead about a dozen Taliban captured from the caves were presented to the media in Tora Bora."

 

7 of 50 | A man cries over the body of his son and neighbors who died in U.S. raids in the Afghan capital Kabul on October 28, 2001. REUTERS/Sayed Salahuddin

 

8 of 50 | Pro-Taliban fighters including foreigners nest behind the iron bars to gain some space in an overcrowded Sibirgan prison near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i Sharif, December 5, 2001. REUTERS/Faruk Zabci-HURRIYET

Luxury is not the word.

 

10 of 50 | A young amputee boy walks through the Eidgah mosque in the city of Kabul December 8, 2001 where the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) started its biggest ever food distribution in the Afghan capital, handing out sacks of wheat to more than three-quarters of the war-ravaged city's population. REUTERS/Peter Andrews

 

11 of 50 | Osama bin Laden (L) sits with his adviser Ayman al-Zawahri, an Egyptian linked to the al Qaeda network, during an interview with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir (not pictured) in an image supplied by the respected Dawn newspaper November 10, 2001. REUTERS/Hamid Mir/Editor/Ausaf Newspaper for Daily Dawn

 

12 of 50 | An Afghan man walks by stacks of worthless Afghani notes in an underground strongroom of the country's national bank in Kabul November 29, 2001. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

 

13 of 50 | An Afghan soldier uses a wooden stick to maintain order among women waiting for humanitarian aid at a World Food Programme WFP distribution point in the city of Kabul December 14, 2001. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

 

8 of 50 | Joint Terminal Attack Controller SSgt Clinton J. Herbison, a U.S. Airman from the 817 Expeditionary Air Support Operations Squadron (EASOS) takes a break during a night mission near Honaker Miracle camp at the Pesh valley of Kunar Province August 12, 2009. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

He is tired.

 

19 of 50 | A victim is taken away from the site of a bomb blast in Kabul December 15, 2009. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

 

22 of 50 | Graffiti left behind by Taliban fighters remains on the walls of a compound now used as a command center for the U.S Marine Corps's First Battalion, Eighth Marines at Musa Qala in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, November 10, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

 

23 of 50 | A wounded Canadian soldier from the NATO-led coalition crawls for cover seconds after his position was hit by a Taliban shell fired from an 82-millimeter recoilless rifle during an ambush in Zhari district of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, October 23, 2007. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

 

24 of 50 | U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Chris Sanderson, 24, from Flemington, New Jersey shouts as he tries to protect an Afghan man and his child after Taliban fighters opened fire in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, February 13, 2010. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic “I was following the U.S. Marines from the 1st Battalion, 6th Regiment Bravo Company during the U.S.-led offensive on the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan. Bravo was one of two companies dropped right in the middle of the town to clear the most difficult areas while other units approached by ground from the outskirts. It was dark and freezing cold when the first wave of Marines dropped from helicopters to begin the offensive. Their first target was a local market known to be a Taliban opium and weapons trafficking point. As Marines approached, a man emerged from a small house holding his son and told soldiers he wanted to greet them. When I saw him I thought it was a good sign: the locals usually know when Taliban are around and if they come out that’s usually an indication they’re gone. Seconds later however, the area exploded with gunfire as snipers unloaded on the Marines, sending three of them diving on top of the Afghan man and his son to give them cover from the flying bullets.”

 

26 of 50 | In this picture released exclusively to Reuters on January 17, 2009, Taliban militants are seen with their weapons in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan January 16, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer

 

28 of 50 | A crowd watches an Afghan National Army Air Corps helicopter carrying President Hamid Karzai during an election rally in Gardez, capital of Paktia province, south of Kabul August 4, 2009. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

 

29 of 50 | A Canadian soldier shakes hands with an Afghan boy during a joint patrol with Afghan National Army troops near Panjwaii village, Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, July 13, 2007. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

 

30 of 50 | Afghan men harvest opium in a poppy field in a village in the Golestan district of Farah province, May 5, 2009. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

 

31 of 50 | A woman walks past riot police outside a gathering in Kabul's stadium February 23, 2007. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

 

32 of 50 | A school girl is seen at a hospital after she was poisoned at Qazaaq primary school in Kapisa province, north of Kabul May 12, 2009. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

 

34 of 50 | Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah sits on a carpet while interacting with the media at the end of an election rally in central Bamiyan province July 29, 2009. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Behind is the slot where a large statue of the Lord Buddha stood.

 

36 of 50 | Afghan soccer players gather in front of the destroyed Darul Aman palace in Kabul June 1, 2010. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

 

39 of 50 | A U.S. Army medevac crew member attempts to revive a Marine mortally wounded in an IED (improvised explosion device) blast near the town of Marjah in Helmand province in this picture taken August 22, 2010. REUTERS/Bob Strong “It was during an embed with a U.S. Army medevac unit based at Camp Dwyer in Helmand province. The Marine had lost a lot of blood from gunshot wounds and had no vital signs by the time we picked him up and the medic started working on him. The medic later told me that the soldier was almost certainly clinically dead by the time he was loaded onto the chopper, but in spite of that he and the flight engineer performed CPR for 20 minutes until we reached the hospital. There was a contrast between the medic’s frantic efforts to save a life and the Marines' faraway glazed eye that was very poignant to me. Embed rules prohibit photographers from sending any images of deceased soldiers until their families have been notified and it wasn't until several days later that I saw the soldier's obituary and filed my pictures. “

 

38 of 50 | A father wipes a tear away from his child's face during a Medevac mission in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province November 13, 2010. The child was injured by an explosion. REUTERS/Peter Andrews

 

40 of 50 | Monica McNeal (R) cries as she hugs a U.S. Marine at the grave (L) of her 19-year-old son Eric Ward, at Arlington National Cemetery, May 27, 2010. Lance Corporal Eric Ward, a fourth-generation U.S. Marine, was killed in Afghanistan on February 21, 2010. REUTERS/Jason Reed

 

41 of 50 | Captain Benjamin Jackson carries Specialist Brian Sanchez while running with Staff Sergeant Anthony Lewis (L) and Private First Class Armando Martinez during the physical fitness portion of a 24 hour Cavalry "Spur Ride" exercise for members of the US Army's 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment in Fort Drum, New York September 29, 2010. The "Spur Ride" is a voluntary rite of passage where members of the U.S. Army Cavalry perform several physical tests utilizing their Army training and physical fitness while learning the history of the unit. This "Spur Ride" is the first for the unit in three years and comes shortly before deployment to Afghanistan. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

The officer looks all right. So does the lad he is carrying. The other two are fat, too fat to be real soldiers.

 

43 of 50 | Children play on diving platforms at an empty pool in Kabul June 5, 2007. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

 

45 of 50 | Members of a mortar team attached to the U.S. Army's Dagger Company, 2-12 Infantry, 4th Brigade return fire with a 120mm mortar during an attack by militants on Michigan Base in the Pesh Valley in Afghanistan's Kunar Province August 7, 2009. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne

 

47 of 50 | A soldier with an injured ankle from the US Army's 1-320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division is assisted past his burning M-ATV armored vehicle after it struck an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) on a road near Combat Outpost Nolen in the Arghandab Valley in this picture taken July 23, 2010. None of the four soldiers in the vehicle were seriously injured in the explosion. REUTERS/Bob Strong

 

49 of 50 | An Afghan man is detained by U.S. Marines from the First Battalion, Eighth Marines Bravo Company at their base in Talibjan after a battle against Taliban insurgents in Musa Qala district in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province November 7, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

 

48 of 50 | A dust-covered Afghan National Army soldier with a flower tucked behind his ear rides on the back of a vehicle during a patrol near the Taliban stronghold of Panjwaii town, Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, November 13, 2007. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

Friendly? I would not trust him.

 

 

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/apache-apocalypse-real-faces-of-war.htm
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From Michael Yon. Source unknown [ make that
http://www.apimages.com/Search.aspx?st=k&remem=x&entity=&kw=gul+buddin+elham&intv=None&shgroup=-10&sh=10
]. Three(?) fresh dead, two American.  http://www.michaelyon-online.com/apache-apocalypse-real-faces-of-war.htm
It was a suicide bomber, yes. It was a new developing tactic in our AO. They would outfit a couple of suicide vests on a couple of guys, put them on motorcycles, then let them drive around until they found a target of opportunity.

The Afghan with the camera was only one of many. It occurred close to an Afghan news station, TV and Radio. The journalists poured out of the building with their cameras, still photo and video, and documented everything. A couple of journalists were on scene when it happened.

It was one of those missions to build partnerships and help improve the lives of the local villagers. 12 civilians were also killed, including an 8 year old child. Several Afghan policemen were also killed along with the Command Sergeant Major (equivalent) from the Afghan army unit partnered with us.