Life and war in Afghanistan: October 2011

Ten years since the war began, security forces continue to fight in Afghanistan as Afghans go about their daily lives.

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Oct. 24, 2011

Spec. Keneth Horton from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off," Charlie Company 4-101 Aviation Regiment plays guitar in Forward Operating Base Dwyer in southern Helmand province. A decade into the war, U.S. troops on the ground complain that Afghan forces are still over-reliant on them and fail to take initiative.

Behrouz Mehri / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 23, 2011

Abdul Hanan, 25, left, works making kebabs at a restaurant in Kabul.

Shah Marai / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 24, 2011

Young Afghan boy Ziya, 5, poses with a tray of eggs as he waits for customers on a street in Kabul. Despite massive injections of foreign aid since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Afghanistan remains desperately poor with some of the lowest standards of living in the world.

Shah Marai / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 23, 2011

French Foreign Legion soldiers from the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment greet one another during a ceremony to mark their return from Afghanistan at Camp Raffali on the island of Corsica. The first 200 French soldiers left Afghanistan four days earlier, kick-starting troop withdrawals announced three months ago as part of NATO plans to wind down its combat mission by 2014.

Pascal Pochard-Casabianca / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 22, 2011

An Afghan pedestrian crosses a street during a storm in Kabul. Despite massive injections of foreign aid since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Afghanistan remains desperately poor.

Massoud Hossaini / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 21, 2011

U.S. Sgt. Sara Nichols from the 159th Combat Aviation Brigade, Task Force Thunder, checks the tail rotor blades of a Black Hawk medevac helicopter at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan.

Behrouz Mehri / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 20, 2011

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, center, leave after a joint press conference at the Presidential Palace in Kabul. Clinton held talks with the Afghan president in Kabul, pushing diplomatic moves ahead of international conferences aimed at ending the 10-year war.

Massoud Hossaini / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 17, 2011

U.S. Flight Medic, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Lemons, right, from the 159th Combat Aviation Brigade, Task Force Thunder, comforts a blindfolded Afghan civilian cook, Salman Gowhar, in an ambulance on the way to the Kandahar Regional Military Hospital at Camp Hero, after airlifting him from the Khakriz village in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. Gowhar was injured by steam blown into his face and eyes while cooking in his village.

Behrouz Mehri / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 17, 2011

Addicts smoke heroin in a destroyed building in Herat City, Afghanistan. Ten years after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to drive the Taliban from power, Afghanistan produces 90 percent of the world’s illegal opium, funding much of the militia’s insurgency despite an expensive Western eradication program. Afghan authorities have been trying to rid the country of illicit opium production, with help from its international allies.

Aref Karimi / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 17, 2011

Afghan men change currency from money traders on a street in Kabul.

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

Oct. 17, 2011

A newborn baby rests in an incubator in a maternity ward in the Malalai Maternity Hospital in Kabul. Restive Afghanistan, with a population of more than 29 million people, is one of the worst places in the world to be pregnant. Estimates show that one woman dies every 30 minutes from complications relating to pregnancy, according to a UNICEF report.

Adek Berry / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 17, 2011

The Qala Iktyaruddin Citadel, which dates to Alexander the Great, has been restored. The citadel, a fortress that resembles a sand castle overlooking the city of Herat, and a new museum of artifacts at the site was completed by hundreds of local craftsmen and funding and support from the U.S. and German governments and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

Houshang Hashimi / AP

Oct. 16, 2011

An Afghan woman walks past a cobbler at a market in Kabul.

Adek Berry / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 13, 2011

Afghan riot police block the way as protesters, not pictured, attend a demonstration in Kabul against Pakistan's interference in Afghanistan.

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

Oct. 14, 2011

An Afghan boy pushes a cart carrying a sick sheep in a neighborhood in Kabul.

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

Oct. 17, 2011

Afghan drug addicts gather for a hit of opium and heroin in a corner on a roadside in Kabul.

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

Oct. 12, 2010

Workers excavate a sprawling 2,600-year-old Buddhist monastery in Mes Aynak, south of Kabul. The archaeological dig is at the world's second-biggest unexploited copper mine.

Dusan Vranic / AP

Oct. 11, 2011

Internally displaced Afghan girls walk through a camp in Kabul. Despite massive injections of foreign aid since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Afghanistan remains desperately poor.

Adek Berry / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 6, 2011

About 200 people demonstrated in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, chanting anti-American slogans ahead of the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.

Shah Marai / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 6, 2011

Afghan protesters in Kabul hold placards as they shout anti-U.S. slogans during a demonstration ahead of the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion. About 200 people demonstrated in Afghanistan's capital. The protesters shouted "death to America and its Afghan puppets" and torched a flag of the United States at the end of their peaceful march through the city center, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

Shah Marai / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 5, 2011

An Afghan boy looks on as U.S. Army soldiers pass by during a mission in the Turkham Nangarhar region.

Tauseef Mustafa / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 5, 2011

A man walks along the road in Turkham, a border crossing town in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.

Tauseef Mustafa / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 5, 2011

Afghan men from the Jamiyat Islami party carry posters of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani as they shout anti-Pakistan slogans during a rally in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan.

Mustafa Najafizada / AP

Oct. 4, 2011

Afghan day laborers work at a local brick factory on the outskirts of Kabul.

Shah Marai / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 5, 2011

An Afghan woman police student takes notes during a criminal investigation class at the Police Academy in Kabul.

Kamran Jebreili / AP

Oct. 4, 2011

Boys play soccer in a makeshift field in the Sherpur area of Kabul. Among the homes of the poor, newly rich warlords-cum-ministers, who made their fortunes by taking over the security business, built expensive multistory mansions in the neighborhood.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Oct. 1, 2011

AP special regional correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan Kathy Gannon sits with girls at a school in Kandahar.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Oct. 3, 2011

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Christian Gehrels, center, and his interpreter talk with local Afghans in eastern Paktika province. U.S. Army and Afghan National Army soldiers are trying to persuade local elders to attend a weekly shura council at their base.

Matt Ford / AP

Oct. 3, 2011

An Afghan laborer works at a construction site in Kabul. According to a recent report from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, about 42 percent of people are unemployed in Afghanistan and 36 percent have a daily income of less than 50 Afghanis (about $1).

Adek Berry / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 3, 2011

A U.S. soldier from the HHB 3-7 Field Artillery Regiment 3rd Bct 25th ID patrols as an Afghan girl walks past in Turkham Nangarhar, Afghanistan, which borders Pakistan.

Tauseef Mustafa / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 3, 2011

A young girl looks out through a car window as she sits next to a burqa-clad woman in Kabul. Ten years after the Taliban were toppled, most of Afghan women continue wearing burqas.

Adek Berry / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 3, 2011

An Afghan girl watches a patrol by U.S. soldiers from the HHB 3-7 Field Artillery Regiment 3rd Bct 25th ID in Turkham Nangarhar, Afghanistan, which borders Pakistan.

Tauseef Mustafa / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 2, 2011

Jose Calzada from U.S. Army HHB 3-7 Field Artillery Regiment 3rd Bct 25th ID stands guard in a street during a mission as Afghan women walk by, in Turkham Nangarhar, Afghanistan.

Tauseef Mustafa / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 2, 2011

Afghan boys look on as soldiers from U.S. Army HHB 3-7 Field Artillery Regiment 3rd Bct 25th ID patrol in a street during a mission in Turkham Nangarhar, Afghanistan.

Tauseef Mustafa / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 1, 2011

An Afghan money changer counts U.S. dollars on a street in Kabul. The Afghan currency, the Afghani, is traded at 48 per $1.

Adek Berry / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 2, 2011

Afghan demonstrators shout anti-Pakistani slogans during a protest in Kabul. Hundreds of protesters rallied in Afghanistan's capital to protest against the alleged shelling of Afghan territory by Pakistani security forces along the border between the two South Asian neighbors.

Shah Marai / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 2, 2011

An Afghan vendor waits for customers at a computer shop in Kabul. Afghanistan, its neighbors and supporters are launching a drive to boost prosperity and peace by linking the country with markets across South Asia and Central Asia, U.S. officials said.

Adek Berry / AFP/Getty Images

Oct. 3, 2011

Afghan workers package fruit juice at a food processing factory in Kabul.

Adek Berry / AFP/Getty Images

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