10 years of war in afghanistan

The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001 as the armed forces of the United States of America and the United Kingdom, and the Afghan United Front (Northern Alliance), launched Operation Enduring Freedom, invading the country, in response to the September 11 attacks on the United States, with the stated goal of dismantling the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization and ending its use of Afghanistan as a base. The United States also said that it would remove the Taliban regime from power and create a viable democratic state.

10 Years of the war has resulted in thousands of adead soldiers, thousands of dead Taliban and thousands of dead civilians and the job is still not done.

WARNING: Some images display scenes of violence and death.

Two young boys are handcuffed at a local liquor factory in Kabul June 29, 2010. Afghan police raided an illicit liquor factory capable of producing dozens of litres of alcohol a day and arrested a moonshiner and two young helpers, officials said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

A Toyota taxi manufactured in the year 1968 travels on the Kabul-Jalalabad highway April 25, 2006. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

An Afghan boy watches a British soldier on patrol in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan June 20, 2006. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

A woman walks past riot police outside a gathering in Kabul's stadium February 23, 2007. Some thirty thousand Afghans staged a gathering in Kabul on Friday to urge President Hamid Karzai to approve a bill that calls for blank amnesty for the country's 25 years of war criminals. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Blood is seen on a road kerb after a bomb blast in Kabul May 3, 2007. A roadside bomb ripped into an Afghan army bus in the capital, Kabul, on Thursday, killing the driver and wounding 14 people, including seven soldiers, police said. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

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

A soldier from the NATO-led coalition force is reflected in a pool of water after heavy rain at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, June 28, 2007. Unseasonal rains have led to flooding in Kandahar and it is also threatening farmer's crops in the province. Note - The photograph has been rotated 180 degrees. REUTERS/ Finbarr O'Reilly

Canadian soldiers from NATO-led forces plan a night manoeuvre under a full moon at the forward operating base of Masumghar, Afghanistan July 1, 2007. REUTERS/ Finbarr O'Reilly

A Canadian soldier of India Company from the NATO-led coalition smokes during a lull in fighting against Taliban insurgents in Sangasar, Zari district in eastern Afghanistan, July 3, 2007. Canadian and Afghan National Army troops engaged Taliban fighters in Sangasar, killing at least two and capturing two more wounded fighters, a Canadian army official said on Tuesday. REUTERS/ Finbarr O'Reilly

The body of Taliban fighter lies wrapped in plastic near Sangasar, Zari district in eastern Afghanistan, July 3, 2007. Canadian and Afghan National Army troops engaged Taliban fighters in Sangasar, killing at least two and capturing two more wounded fighters, a Canadian army official said on Tuesday. REUTERS/ Finbarr O'Reilly

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. Canadian troops from the Observer Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) are training the ANA as part of the NATO-led coalition's efforts to strengthen Afghanistan's national government and military. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

Canadian soldiers from the NATO-led coalition race for a fly ball during a game of baseball at Ma'sum Ghar camp in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan July 15, 2007. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

U.S. President George W. Bush (L) and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai wave from a golf cart after Karzai's arrival at the Presidential retreat, Camp David, outside of Thurmont, Maryland, for a two-day visit, August 5, 2007. REUTERS/Larry Downing

Shadow, an Afghan puppy owned by Canadian soldiers from the NATO-led coalition, sits in his sand-bagged kennel at Three Tank Hill base near Panjwaii town in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, October 27, 2007. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

U.S. soldiers turn away as a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter takes off from a U.S. base in the Jaji district of the southeastern Paktia province, near the Afghan-Pakistan border January 27, 2008. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

U.S Army soldiers and an Afghan policeman looks at the bodies of Taliban fighters after a gun battle near the village of Shajoy in Zabol province March 22, 2008. Afghan police backed by U.S. troops killed three Taliban fighters and captured three more in a 40-minute gun battle in southern Afghanistan on Saturday. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

U.S. soldiers search for weapons on an Afghan man, who works for a private security firm escorting truck convoys, after they found illegal weapons in his vehicle, in a village near Kandahar April 27, 2008. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

Marcus Webber (R), a U.S. Army Specialist with 293D Military Police Company, 97th Military Police Battalion, shows an Afghan policeman how to hold a rifle in a local police station in the town of Kandahar, southern Afghanistan March 23, 2010. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

A U. S Marine from Lima company 3rd bn 6th Marines rests while waiting during a patrol in the area of Karez-e-Sayyidi, in Helmand province, April 8, 2010. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 3-17 Field Artillery, 5-2ID Striker Brigade Combat Team fire a 155mm Howitzer at night from Forward Operating Base Ramrod in Kandahar Province April 13, 2010. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne

An armoured vehicle from the Centurion Company, 2-1 Infantry Battalion, 5/2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team is framed by a bolt of lightning during a storm at Combat Outpost Terminator in Maiwand District, Kandahar Province April 19, 2010. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne

Canadian Army soldiers carry a coffin containing the body of their comrade Petty Officer Second Class Douglas Craig Blake during a ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield NATO base May 5, 2010. Blake was killed by an improvised explosive device that detonated in Panjwa'i District some 25 km (16 miles) southwest of Kandahar City on May 3. REUTERS/Nikola Solic

United States Army 10th Mountain Division soldier Jorge Avino from Miami, Florida carves the body count that their mortar team has chalked

up on a rock, March 9, 2002 near the villages of Sherkhankheyl, Marzak and Bobelkiel, in Afghanistan. The team said they have killed 40 plus people, hit 12 vehicles and destroyed 1 mortar team near the villages

were an al Qaeda and Taliban stronghold came under intense bombing and firefights as the coalition forces battled to root them out. REUTERS/POOL/Joe Raedle

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. The United State is commemorating Memorial Day this weekend. REUTERS/Jason Reed

1st Sgt Buddy Hartlaub with the US Army's 1-320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division stands before a memorial to Spc 1st Class Brandon King at Combat Outpost Terra Nova in the Arghandab Valley north of Kandahar, July 20, 2010. King was shot and killed by a suspected Taliban militant while on guard duty at Combat Outpost Nolen on July 14. REUTERS/Bob Strong

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. Picture taken July 23, 2010. REUTERS/Bob Strong

An Afghan Army soldier fires a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) at suspected Taliban militants as US Army soldiers crouch down at Combat Outpost Nolen in the Arghandab Valley north of Kandahar July 27, 2010. REUTERS/Bob Strong

Soldiers with the US Army's 1-320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division work to save a comrade after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded just outside Combat Outpost Nolen in the Arghandab Valley north of Kandahar July 30, 2010. One soldier lost a leg in the blast and another was wounded in the face by shrapnel. REUTERS/Bob Strong

Soldiers with the U.S. Army's 1-320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division shield themselves from the dust as a Medivac helicopter takes off outside Combat Outpost Nolen in the Arghandab Valley north of Kandahar July 30, 2010. One soldier lost his leg and another was hit by shrapnel after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blew up during a patrol near the base. REUTERS/Bob Strong

Canadian soldiers play table football under flashlights at a military outpost near the village of Bazaar e Panjwaii, in the Panjwaii district of Kandahar province August 8, 2010. REUTERS/Bob Strong

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. Picture taken August 22, 2010. REUTERS/Bob Strong

A worker cleans a picture on the monument built in memory of assassinated anti-Taliban Afghan rebel leader Ahmad Shah Masood to mark the ninth anniversary of his death, in Kabul September 8, 2010. The former Northern Alliance general was assassinated by Al Qaeda agents two days before the September 11, 2001 attacks, and is revered by many Afghans. REUTERS/Andrew Biraj

A U.S. Marine from 1st Light Armoured Reconnaisance Battalion, Bravo Company is shrouded in dust while travelling in an armoured vehicle in the desert of Helmand September 10, 2010. REUTERS/Erik de Castro

An Italian soldier of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) stands guard as an Afghan boy aims a toy pistol inside Herat's prison, western Afghanistan September 14, 2010. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi

U.S. Army medic SSG Quincy Northern from Dustoff team, C Company, 1-214 Aviation Regiment, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade walks toward his medevac helicopter as it casts a shadow on a hospital wall at Camp Dwyer in Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 5, 2011. REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov

U.S. Army SPC Jeremy Stocks from Dustoff team, C Company, 1-214 Aviation Regiment, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade restores a flagpole back in place after the flagpole fell in a night sandstorm at Camp Dwyer in Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 10, 2011. REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov

An Afghan girl whose family members were killed overnight after a raid by NATO and Afghan forces, covers her face as she weeps during a protest in Taloqan May 18, 2011. Ten people have been killed and fifty wounded in violent protests against the killing of two men and two women in a night-time raid in north Afghanistan, a top local health official said. REUTERS/Wahdat

A female officer from Officer Candidate School at Kabul Military Training Centre stands next to her bed as high ranking officials from the defense ministry arrives to inspect the school after their graduation ceremony in Kabul May 19, 2011. The female officers graduated after a 20-week course including computer training, human resources training, English classes and marksmanship. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

U.S. Army soldiers from the 2nd Platoon, B battery 2-8 field artillery, fire a howitzer artillery piece at Seprwan Ghar forward fire base in Panjwai district, Kandahar province southern Afghanistan, June 12, 2011. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

U.S. Army soldiers from 2-35 infantry battalion kneel during a memorial ceremony in forward firebase Joyce in Kunar province, July 7, 2011. Four U.S. Army soldiers, Lieutenant Dimitri Del Castillo, Staff Sergeant Nigel Kelly, Specialist Levi Nuncio and Specialist Kevin Hilaman, two Afghan National Army soldiers, an Afghan linguist and Agdar, a military sniffer dog died during operations in Kunar district in the last week of June 2011. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

Three captured Taliban insurgents are presented to the media in Ghazni province August 25, 2011. REUTERS/Mustafa Andaleb

An Afghan man walks over a footbridge at sunset in the northern Afghanistan town of Khoja Bahawuddin October 24, 2001. REUTERS/Yannis

Behrakis

A crime investigating team works at the site after a suicide bombing in Kabul July 22, 2008. A suicide bomber killed three civilians and wounded one more in an attack in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday, a police official said. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

German Bundeswehr army soldiers of the ISAF Quick Reaction Force (QRF) open fire during a night drill in the Marmal mountains near Masar-i-Sharif, north of Kabul, September 16, 2008. Picture is taken through a night vision device. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Sgt. William Olas Bee, a U.S. Marine from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has a close call after Taliban fighters opened fire near Garmsir in Helmand Province of Afghanistan, May 18, 2008. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

U.S. President George W. Bush embraces Afghan President Hamid Karzai as Bush departs the Presidential Palace in Afghanistan December 15, 2008. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

An Afghan boy watches a Canadian soldier patrol in Kandahar city June 10, 2009. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

A British soldier from 3 SCOTS rests with his dog after taking over a Taliban compound in a Taliban-held area of Afghanistan's Helmand province during Operation Panther's Claw, July 10, 2009. British troops have faced heavy fighting during the operation, a bid to clear out Taliban-held areas north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, while U.S. Marines stage a massive operation of their own further south. Picture taken July 10, 2009. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

A French soldier of the NATO-led coalition rides in an APC (armoured personnel carrier) during a joint patrol with U.S. and Afghan troops in the village of Hajian in the mountains of Afghanistan's Wardak Province July 12, 2009. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

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

A U.S. soldier of 2-12 Infantry 4BCT-4ID Task Force Mountain Warrior takes a break during a night mission near Honaker Miracle camp at the Pesh valley of Kunar Province August 12, 2009. REUTERS/Carlos Barria See also GM1E5B60TQF01

An Afghan soldier takes sits up position during a mission on the mountains near Honaker Miracle camp at the Pesh valley of Kunar Province August 12, 2009. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

A man peers out from a loose blindfold as he sits with the others suspected to be Taliban militia members after being arrested by U.S. forces in Combat Main camp at the Pesh valley in Kunar Province August 14, 2009. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Afghan soldiers' boots with holes are left by a wall as the soldiers take a shower in Kabul, August 17, 2009. Afghanistan's presidential election will be held on August 20. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

A U.S. soldier of 2-12 Infantry 4BCT-4ID Task Force Mountain Warrior cleans his face as he takes up position during a security operation for the Afghan elections near Honaker Miracle camp at the Pesh valley of Kunar Province August 20, 2009. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

A funeral. Reuters

Afghan boy walks next to a pile of Russian-made helmets in the Panjshir Valley, some 100km (63 miles) north of Kabul, Afghanistan August 10, 2005. Pictures of the month August 2005 REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

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. Afghanistan's ruling Taliban gave Osama bin Laden free rein to wage holy war on the United States as Washington said its war planes had the run of the Afghan skies. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

Northern Alliance soldiers fire a mortar from the front line nearby Charatoy town in the north of Afghanistan October 15, 2001. Defense officials said that U.S. warplanes conducted very heavy daylight strikes against troops and other Taliban targets on Monday, as a fourth American aircraft carrier moved near striking range of Afghanistan.

REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

An Afghan woman wearing a traditional Burqa walks on the side of a road as a Northern Alliance APC, (Armoured Personnel Carrier) carrying fighters and the Afghan flag, drives to a new position in the outskirts of Jabal us Seraj, some 60kms north of the Afghan capital Kabul November 4, 2001.The Northern Alliance, a mix of mostly ethnic Uzbek and Tajik fighters in the north, is viewed with suspicion and enmity by ethnic Pashtuns, who operate in other areas. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis

Afghan soldiers sit on a ledge overlooking the valley of Bamian in central Afghanistan September 22, 2005. In 1999, the Islamic fundamentalist movement that was then in control of most of Afghanistan, declared the statues and grottoes idolatrous and un-Islamic, and in March 2001 they used artillery and explosives to demolish the Great Buddha and another large statue. Picture taken on September 22, 2005. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan

An Afghan refugee girl in the Kili Faizu UNHCR Camp in Chaman, Pakistan reacts after spotting a jet flying overhead, November 10, 2001.

Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance said they swept into four more provinces in the north on Saturday, a day after the capture of Mazar-i-Sharif, despite fierce Taliban resistance in some places.

REUTERS/Adrees Latif

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

centre in central Kabul November 14, 2001. Under its strict interpretation of Islam, the Taliban ordered all women hidden behind head-to-toe burqas. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis

Afghan women, without their burqas, wash clothes in Kabul river November 14, 2001. Under its strict interpretation of Islam, the Taliban banned music, ordered all adult men to wear a beard long enough to be clutched in a fist and women, hidden behind head-to-toe burqas, were forbidden to work or study. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis REUTERS

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. This sign is one of several at an

area that Charlie Company named Camp Justice on the perimiter of the larger base. REUTERS/Jim Hollander

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. Some 3,350 pro-Taliban prisoners were locked in this prison after they were captured by Northern Alliance. REUTERS/Faruk Zabci-HURRIYET

An Afghan girl reads from the board in a home-based school in Kabul December 2, 2001. The school, operating secretly for a year under the strict Taliban regime, has now opened its doors for all children ready to pay a small monthly fee. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

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. The U.N. (WFP) started its biggest ever food distribution in the Afghan capital last week, handing out sacks of wheat to more than three-quarters of the war-ravaged city's population. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

A Hazara girl covers her face as she holds a child in a cave in Bamiyan December 15, 2001. The destruction of the 2,000-year-old Buddhas, among the great wonders of the ancient world, was the first many people outside Afghanistan had heard of the Taliban or Bamiyan. But a story of human horror also unfolded in the town and the surrounding area as forces of the Sunni Muslim Taliban, fired by a perverse interpretation of Islam, forced tens of thousands of Shi'ite Muslims to flee into the mountains. NO RIGHTS CLEARANCES OR PERMISSIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR THIS IMAGE REUTERS/Peter Andrews

Anti-Taliban Afghan fighters watch several explosions from U.S. bombings in the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan December 16, 2001.

Hundreds of al Qaeda fighters have battled to the death in a last stand in eastern Afghanistan, but their leader Osama bin Laden eluded the U.S. dragnet, Afghan commanders said on Sunday. REUTERS/Erik de Castro

A wounded Afghan driver stands in front of his car at the site of a suicide car bomb explosion in Kabul May 8, 2008. A suicide car bomber targeted a convoy carrying foreign soldiers on the western outskirts of Kabul, but missed, and instead three civilians were wounded in the attack, a police official said. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Afghan returnees stand in their mud house built with help from the Norwegian refugee council (NRC) in Ghorian district of Herat province, west of Kabul in this picture taken May 27, 2008. Many Afghan refugees struggle to rebuild their lives in their shattered homeland after spending years, sometimes decades, in Pakistan and Iran where they fled over the last 30 years of almost continual war. Picture taken May 27, 2008. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood T

German ISAF soldiers of the Quick Reaction Force regional command north (QRF) climb up a hill during a drill in the Marmal mountains near the German ISAF headquarters in Masar-i-Sharif, north of Kabul, July 1, 2008. A German Bundeswehr army unit of combat troops to northern Afghanistan that is part of a NATO Quick Reaction Force replaced a Norwegian unit on July 1. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Blood is seen on the ground near the shadows of Afghan police at the site of an attack on foreigners outside an office of the courier company DHL in Kabul October 25, 2008. Unknown gunmen shot dead at least one foreigner and three Afghans in the heart of the capital Kabul on Saturday, police officials said. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

An child receives medical attention during a Medevac mission in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province November 13, 2010. The child was injured in an explosion. REUTERS/Peter Andrews

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

A Canadian soldier of the NATO-led coalition rests after a six hours night foot patrol in the Taliban stronghold of Zhari district in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan March 19, 2009. Roadside bombs killed four Canadian soldiers as well as a local interpreter in Afghanistan on Friday, Canadian Brigadier-General Jonathan Vance said. Picture taken March 19, 2009. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

An Afghan man poses in front of a French Army soldier of the NATO-led coalition during a patrol in south Kabul April 19, 2009. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen

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

Afghan children stand at the door of their home during a special operation at Sanjaray in Kandahar Province, May 16, 2009. More than a thousand soldiers from the Canadian, U.S. and Afghan armies took part in an anti-Taliban operation at Sanjaray over the weekend. Picture taken May 16, 2009. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

Afghan refugee children look from the window of their shelter in the former Soviet embassy, a huge compound amid the destruction of west Kabul, November 27, 2001. The area was turned devastated by civil war in the early 1600s and the gunshot-riddled old compound now provides shelter to thousands of people made homeless by two decades of war.

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 on Saturday, handing out sacks of wheat to more than three-quarters of the war-ravaged city's population.

An Afghan National Policeman returns to his base after a patrol came under fire in the Taliban stronghold of Kolk in Zhari district, Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, November 15, 2007. A joint Canadian-Afghan patrol came under fire on Thursday and the Canadian gunner of an armoured vehicle stationed nearby said he killed up to five attackers. No bodies were found when the patrol conducted a search 30 minutes after clash. Insurgents usually remove the bodies of their dead from the battlefield. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

Soldiers from the U.S. Army's Alpha Battery, 425 Field Artillery, 3rd brigade of 10th Mountain Division based in Fort Drum, New York, fire their 155 mm Howitzer in Cop Cherokee base in Kherwar district in Logar province October 4, 2009. REUTERS/Nikola Solic

U.S. marines fire during a Taliban ambush as they carry out an operation to clear an area in Helmand province, October 9, 2009. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

A victim is taken away from the site of a bomb blast in Kabul December 15, 2009. At least four civilians were killed on Tuesday by a suicide car bomb outside a hotel used by foreigners in Kabul's main diplomatic area and across the street from the home of a former vice president. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

U.S. Marines carry a comrade wounded by an improvised explosive device (IED) to a waiting medevac helicopter, near the town of Marjah in Helmand Province, August 21, 2010. REUTERS/Bob Strong

The bodies of five Taliban fighters killed by Afghan National Police lie in the back of a vehicle at Musa Qala in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, November 13, 2010. The photograph has been rotated 180 degrees. Picture taken November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

Residents on horse-led carts hurry past burning fuel tankers along the GT Road near Nowshera, located in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province October 7, 2010. Gunmen in Pakistan set fire to up to 40 supply trucks for NATO troops in Afghanistan on Wednesday, police said. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

Private First Class Brandon Voris, 19, of Lebanon, Ohio, from the First Battalion Eighth Marines Alpha Company stands in the middle of his camp as a sandstorm hits his remote outpost near Kunjak in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, October 28, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

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

A machine gunner from the First Battalion, Eighth Marines Bravo Company wears a bandolier of bullets around his neck at his base in Talibjan after a patrol in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, November 9, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

U.S. Marines help their wounded comrade to a helicopter while under fire during a Medevac mission in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province November 10, 2010. Picture taken November 10, 2010. REUTERS/Peter Andrews

Afghan children stand together near the town of Kunjak in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province October 24, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly