Images from Afghanistan: June 2011

Continued photo coverage of life and war in Afghanistan.

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June 29, 2011

Foreign soldiers leave the Intercontinental Hotel at the end of a military operation against Taliban militants who had stormed the building in Kabul. Taliban suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the hotel, sparking a five-hour battle with Afghan comandos backed by a NATO helicopter gunship. The assault left at least 11 civilians dead.

Pedro Ugarte / AFP/Getty Images

June 29, 2011

Smoke and flames rise from the Intercontinental Hotel during a battle between NATO-led forces and Taliban suicide bombers and insurgents in Kabul. Afghan police sifted through one of Kabul's landmark hotels room by room on Wednesday for more casualties or security threats after an overnight Taliban assault killed at least 11 Afghan civilians. The eight attackers, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons, stormed the heavily guarded hotel, frequented by Westerners and VIPs, before a NATO helicopter killed the remaining insurgents in a final rooftop battle that ended a raid lasting more than five hours.

/ Reuters

June 29, 2011

An Afghan boy peers out from a hut as Canadian soldiers patrol his village on one of their final operations in the Panjwaii district of Kandahar province. Canadian combat operations will end in July as troops withdraw from the southern region and hand control over to the Americans. Canada will transition to a non-combat training role with up to 950 soldiers and support staff to train Afghan soldiers and policemen.

David Goldman / AP

June 29, 2011

A Canadian soldier exits a room after searching a compound in the Panjwaii district of Kandahar province. Canadian combat operations will end in July.

David Goldman / AP

June 27, 2011

A young Afghan patient exercises with her artificial leg at one of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hospitals for war victims and disabled in Kabul. The ICRC orthopedic project started in 1988 in Kabul, and it consists of seven centers in different provinces.

Massoud Hossaini / AFP/Getty Images

June 27, 2011

An Afghan worker carries a sack of wheat in a U.N. World Food Program warehouse in Kabul. The WFP announced Monday it will cut food assistance to more than 3 million Afghans in about half the country's 34 provinces because of a shortage of money from donor nations.

Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP

June 26, 2011

Afghan schoolgirls clad in burqas pay attention to their male teacher in the outskirts of Herat province. Afghan society is still strongly male-dominated, with men the decision-makers in family life, many women still wearing the burqa, and forced marriages common. Women were also banned from being educated during Taliban-ruled Afghanistan from 1996 till 2001.

Aref Karimi / AFP/Getty Images

June 27, 2011

Soldiers with the Canadian Army's 1st Battalion 22nd Royal Regiment prepare for an operation at sunrise on Forward Operating Base Sperwan Ghar in the Panjwaii district of Kandahar province.

David Goldman / AP

June 23, 2011

President Obama speaks on a television broadcast news as a cashier of a local restaurant takes a nap in Kabul. Obama's withdrawal plan for Afghanistan marks the beginning of the end of a troop-intensive approach to countering a Taliban insurgency that until recent months had fought the U.S. and its NATO allies to a standstill.

Musadeq Sadeq / AP

June 23, 2011

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, center, with his vice presidents and some key cabinet members, gives a speech regarding the U.S. plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. Afghan security forces will be ready to take over from foreign troops, Karzai said on Thursday after Washington announced plans to withdraw 10,000 troops by the end of the year, saying his counterpart, President Obama, had made the right decision.

Ahmad Masood / Reuters

June 23, 2011

Defeated candidates of Afghanistan's September 2010 election wait for the resumption of proceedings of a special electoral tribunal in a Kabul courtroom. The special Afghan tribunal began throwing out election results Thursday from last year's parliamentary poll, alleging massive fraud and putting in question who will control the legislative body that acts as one of the few checks on President Hamid Karzai.

Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP

June 23, 2011

U.S. 1st Sgt. Victor Rivera, center, from Viper Company (Bravo), 1-26 Infantry talks to the troops during a formation at Combat Outpost Sabari in Khost province in the east of Afghanistan.

Ted Aljibe / AFP/Getty Images

June 22, 2011

An Afghan National Army soldier takes part in training at the Kabul military center.

Omar Sobhani / Reuters

June 22, 2011

The body of a police officer is carried from an ambulance at the hospital in Ghazni, west of Kabul. A local official says insurgents killed six police officers in an attack in central Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Rahmatullah Nikzad / AP

June 21, 2011

U.S. soldiers from Viper Company (Bravo), 1-26 Infantry, stand guard on a watch tower overlooking villages at Combat Outpost Sabari in Khost province in the east of Afghanistan.

Ted Aljibe / AFP/Getty Images

June 21, 2011

A man sells plastic cases for identity cards as a disabled man passes him in Kabul.

Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP

June 21, 2011

A timber seller peels pole at a roadside timber stall in Kabul.

Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP

June 20, 2011

Internally displaced Afghan girls look on as a man rests in the shade of his makeshift tent at a camp for refugees in Kabul. On World Refugee Day, the U.N. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees called for accelerated peace initiatives, so that all Afghan refugees can return, a statement of United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said.

Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP

June 21, 2011

Fruit sellers push their carts in Kabul.

Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP

June 21, 2001

Afghan boys and girls mark Go Skateboarding Day in Kabul.

Musadeq Sadeq / AP

June 21, 2001

An Afghan man loads animal feed recovered from a roadside garbage dump onto donkeys in Kabul.

Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP

June 5, 2011

A boy climbs down a berry tree at a cemetery in Kabul. The current operation in Afghanistan began when U.S. forces attacked Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001.

Ahmad Masood / Reuters

June 6, 2011

An Afghan girl stands on the roof of her house in Kabul. The military effort in Afghanistan is now America's longest war.

Mohammad Ismail / Reuters

June 6, 2011

Afghan children are seen in a poor neighborhood of Kabul.

Musadeq Sadeq / AP

June 5, 2011

Girls, who sell water, sit on a grave at a cemetery in Kabul. Afghan intelligence recently found that the Taliban is using child bombers.

Mohammad Ismail / Reuters

June 10, 2011

Afghans walk cattle along the newly asphalted section of the Bamiyan-Yakawlang road in Yakawlang, Afghanistan. The $69 million project is supported by Japan and the World Bank. The 56-mile road project started three years ago and is set to be finished in another year.

Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

June 3, 2011

Afghan women pray during Friday prayers at the Madinatul-Elm mosque in Kabul. Afghan women have completely separate sections inside the mosque from men for prayer; however in many parts of the country where violence and the Taliban are a way of life, women pray only at home.

Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

June 11, 2011

An Afghan girl waits for her turn to preform in a rehearsal show against child labor at the Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children in Kabul. The Mobile Mini Circus for Children is an international nonprofit organization provide educational and informative entertainment for Afghan children.

Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP

June 21, 2011

U.S. soldiers from Viper Company (Bravo), 1-26 Infantry, stand guard on a watch tower overlooking villages at Combat Outpost Sabari in Khost province in the east of Afghanistan. President Obama will announce the size of his drawdown of U.S. troops from Afghanistan on June 23, mapping out an endgame for a 10-year war that has exacted a fearsome human and financial toll.

Ted Aljibe / AFP/Getty Images

June 3, 2011

Afghan national police officers and U.S. Marines rush with a badly wounded Afghan police officer to a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off," Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment, after they came under fire in the outskirts of Sangin, in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

June 5, 2011

U.S. Army flight medic Spec. Daniel Miller, right, tends to injured U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Lynch aboard a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off," Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment en route to a hospital in Helmand province.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

June 4, 2011

U.S. Army chief Spec. Jenny Martinez holds the hand of an injured U.S. Marine who was wounded in a roadside bombing onboard a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off."

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

June 11, 2001

Canadian soldiers from 4th platoon, Bulldog Company 1st Battalion, 22nd royal regiment walk during a patrol in the village of Sarah in Panjwai district of Kandahar province southern Afghanistan. Canada will end its combat role in Afghanistan by the end of July, after nearly 10 years fighting in Afghanistan.

Baz Ratner / Reuters

June 11, 2011

Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, shouts out as he is rescued on a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off" Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment. He was shot in the stomach outside Sangin, in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

June 6, 2011

Defense Secretary Robert Gates prepares to climb into a Blackhawk helicopter at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Shank, in Logar province, Afghanistan.

Jason Reed / AP

June 11, 2011

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, right, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai shake hands after a joint news conference at the prime minister's residence in Islamabad. Pakistan pledged to help Afghanistan end a 10-year Taliban insurgency, as their mutual ally the United States prepares to start a gradual troop withdrawal.

Faisal Mahmood / Reuters

June 2, 2011

Staff Sgt. Jerry Richardson, of Meriden, Conn., plays with his son Trey, 3, before leaving the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Center in New Haven, Conn.. About 30 Marines left the center to train at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina before being deployed to Afghanistan.

Brad Horrigan / AP

June 2, 2011

Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Laroche hugs his wife, Lauren Laroche, before leaving the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Center in New Haven, Conn. About 30 Marines left the center to train at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina before being deployed to Afghanistan.

Brad Horrigan / AP

June 21, 2011

Solders of 16 Air Assault Brigade take part in a homecoming parade at Parliament in London. The soldiers, who returned from operations in Afghanistan in April, marched to the Houses of Parliament to attend a reception with the All Party Group for the Armed Forces.

Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images

June 3, 2011

German soldiers stand by the coffins holding bodies of three comrades killed in Afghanistan, during the funeral service in Epiphaniaskirche (Epiphany church) in Hanover.

Peter Steffen / Reuters

June 5, 2011

An Army carry team carries the transfer case containing the remains of Army Sgt. Jeffrey C. Sherer of Four Oaks, N.C., upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Del..The Department of Defense announced the death of Sherer, who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

Jose Luis Magana / AP

June 2, 2011

A transfer case containing the remains of Army Spec. Richard C. Emmons III sits on a loader at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Emmons, 22, of North Granby, Conn., died May 31, 2011 in Logar province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with a rocket-propelled grenade.

Steve Ruark / AP

June 20, 2011

A Marine embraces Haley O'Brien as Tammy O'Brien, right, holds a flag to honor her son, Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas S. O'Brien, after a memorial service at the First Assembly of God, in Gastonia, N.C. O'Brien was killed June 9 while serving in Afghanistan.

Chuck Burton / AP

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