wpostServer: http://css.washingtonpost.com/wpost
Signs of progress in southern Afghanistan For the first time since the war began, the Taliban is commencing a summer fighting season with less control and influence of territory in the south than it had the previous year.
The door gunner in a U.S. Marine UH-1Y Venom helicopter scans the landscape for a reported gunfight between U.S. troops and Taliban insurgents in Sangin. The gunner has access to detailed military maps on an iPad. The helicopter's crew is from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
/
The Washington Post
Related Content
An aerial view of Sangin, a riverine district that has been the deadliest part of the country for coalition troops in Afghanistan.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
/
The Washington Post
U.S. Marines patrol in Sangin next to a field of opium-producing poppies. Although the Marines have improved security in the district, many farmers continue to grow poppies and fear that cooperating with coalition forces would interfere with their livelihoods.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
/
The Washington Post
U.S. Marine Lt. Kolbe Grell, commander of 3rd Platoon, Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, looks through a doorway at a poppy field in Sangin.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
/
The Washington Post
Lt. Col. Jason Morris, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, listens as Sangin district governor Mohammed Sharif, center, speaks to an Ishakzai tribal elder.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
/
The Washington Post
Sangin district governor Mohammed Sharif speaks to Ishakzai tribal elders during a community meeting in southern Sangin. Sharif, a former schoolteacher, implored the 50 men seated before him to renounce the insurgency. “Dear brothers, it’s enough,” he said. “The things you have done, it’s enough. Come back to the government. If you have done bad deeds, God will forgive you.” But none of the Ishakzai expressed any interest in reconciling.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
/
The Washington Post
About 50 Taliban militants who have fought Afghan and foreign troops for years defected to the Afghan government in Kandahar on April 11, hailing Kabul's push for peace and reconciliation.
Ahmad Nadeem
/
Reuters
A boy cleans cucumbers at the bazaar in Sangin. Since Marine security operations began in the fall, commercial activity in the bazaar has increased significantly.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
/
The Washington Post
Laborers repair a house that had been flattened by U.S. airstrikes in Tarok Kolache. U.S. commanders decided to raze the village in Arghandab district, after assurances that all its residents had left, because it was being used as a command-and-control base by the Taliban.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
/
The Washington Post
Workers begin construction on a new home in Khosrow Sofla in the Arghandab valley, north of Kandahar. The village was destroyed by U.S. aircraft in October, after U.S. Army commanders determined it was being used as a base of operations by Taliban fighters. The U.S. government is paying for the rebuilding of this village and two others hit by airstrikes.
Bob Strong
/
Reuters
U.S. Army Lt. Col. David Flynn and Col. Patrick Frank lead troops through Charqolba Olya, a village in the Arghandab valley formerly held by the Taliban.
Bob Strong
/
Reuters
An Afghan boy herds sheep as he walks with an elder through the village of Tarok Kolache in the Arghandab valley of Afghanistan. Village elders and coalition forces recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a mosque, the first completed structure in a massive reconstruction effort by Tarok Kolache landowners and coaliton forces since the village, previously a Taliban stronghold, was destroyed by airstrikes in October.
Haraz N. Ghanbari
/
NATO via Associated Press
The Kajaki Dam, built by U.S. engineers in the 1950s. The U.S. government wants to repair a hydropower generator at the dam to provide much-needed electricity to Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, but doing so will require the Marines to evict the Taliban from areas near the dam.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
/
The Washington Post
U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman Kriz Jalandoni on patrol with troops from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, in the main bazaar in Sangin district.
Sebastian Abbot
/
Associated Press
Afghan soldiers and local boys swim in a canal outside Combat Outpost Nolen in the Arghandab valley.
Bob Strong
/
Reuters
U.S. Army Lt. Col. David Flynn, commander of the 1-320th Field Artillery Regiment, speaks to soldiers during an awards ceremony at Strongpoint Lugo in Arghandab valley.
Bob Strong
/
Reuters
In a September 2010 photo, a soldier with the 101st Airborne Division Alpha Battery 1-320th throws a fragmentation grenade as Combat Outpost Nolen in the Arghandab valley comes under Taliban attack.
Patrick Baz
/
Agence France-Presse via Getty Images
A U.S. helicopter arrives to evacuate Spc. Jeremy Kuehl of Altoona, Iowa, who was seriously wounded when he stepped on an improvised explosive device in the volatile Arghandab valley in October.
Rodrigo Abd
/
Associated Press
Soldiers in the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division wade though a creek to avoid buried insurgent bombs while on patrol in Zhari district, west of Kandahar, in October.
Chris Hondros
/
Getty Images
Sunset in Kandahar as seen from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter flying over the city.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
/
The Washington Post
FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES
Photos of the day
Battle of Teutoburg Forest reenactment, Mars Curiosity rover drilling, massive tornado strikes Moore, Oklahoma and more.
Animal views
Fun and fascinating creatures around the world.
The Herndon Climb
The Herndon Monument climb is the traditional culmination of plebe year at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Eye on entertainment
Rosario Dawson, Alec Baldwin, Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Bow Wow, Amy Poehler and more.
Ethiopia’s salt trail
For centuries, merchants have traveled to Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression with caravans of camels to collect salt from the surface of the vast desert basin. The mineral is extracted...
???initialComments:true! pubdate:04/16/2011 19:09 EDT! commentPeriod:3! commentEndDate:4/19/11 7:9 EDT! currentDate:5/21/13 8:0 EDT! allowComments:false! displayComments:true!
Section:/world
Loading...
Comments