Year in photos: Afghanistan War

GlobalPost
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An aerial view of a village in Kandahar province. (Ben Brody/GlobalPost)

The Afghanistan War is now in its 10th year. Marked by several major offensives, including one last summer into Kandahar province, an area once considered a safe-haven for Taliban militants, the war has become increasingly unpopular around the world.

An official review by the United States of its war strategy this December, however, said the war was on the right track. U.S. troops, President Barack Obama said in a recent speech, were still on schedule to begin withdrawing from Afghanistan next summer.

GlobalPost takes a look back at the last year of the Afghanistan War in photos.

In Kandahar it is all a matter of footing. Here, U.S. troops try to avoid improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, as they make their way through thick marijuana fields on a mission to surround a hostile town. (James Foley/GlobalPost)
Soldiers take cover as Staff Sgt. Jerry Pringle, a combat engineer, blows up a mud wall that is blocking their view of surrounding fields. (Ben Brody/GlobalPost)
An alleged Taliban militant sits on the ground in the village of Bayanzay in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, after Afghan police rounded up villagers suspected of setting an improvised explosive device that killed an Afghan woman. (Ben Brody/GlobalPost)
During their walk back to Combat Outpost Mizan, a suspected Taliban fighter shifts nervously while soldiers examine the crater left by the IED that killed a woman earlier in the day. (Ben Brody/GlobalPost)

After a year as the leader of 3rd Platoon, Fox Company, 2/2 Stryker Cavalry Regiment, 1st Lt. Troy Peterson has been promoted to Fox Company's executive officer. That means he must leave 3rd Platoon, which is stationed at Combat Outpost Mizan in Kandahar province, and head to the sprawling Forward Operating Base Apache in Qalat. Before leaving, Peterson took a memento from his time leading troops at Mizan — the American flag that has flown over the base for the last three months. Tattered by relentless wind and dust, it was time to put up a new flag anyhow. (Ben Brody/GlobalPost)

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