PEOPLE AND PLACES: BEFORE AND AFTER DEATH

Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus was killed today, shot to death by an Afghan policeman while covering the upcoming national election. She covered conflicts from Bosnia to Afghanistan for more than 20 years, earning a Pulitzer Prize in 2005, as part of a team of AP photographers covering the Iraq War. Last November I was very happy to be able to feature her amazing work in a photo essay titled "Afghanistan: Seen Through the Lens of Anja Niedringhaus." What I wrote then remains true: Documenting a decades-long story like the Afghanistan War is a challenge for any photojournalist, from simple logistical issues, to serious safety concerns, to the difficulty of keeping the narrative fresh and compelling. Niedringhaus did a remarkable job, telling people's stories with a strong, consistent voice, an amazing eye for light and composition, and a level of compassion that clearly shows through her images. A remarkable voice has been lost today.

Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus stands next to photographs from Iraq, left, and Afghanistan, right, during a press preview of her exhibition "Anja Niedringhaus At War" at the Gallery C/O in Berlin on September 9, 2011. (Photo/Markus Schreiber)

An Afghan girl tries to peer through the holes of her burqa as she plays with other children in the old town of Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

A German soldier sits next to candles lit to celebrate his 34th birthday, during a long term patrol in Yaftal e Sofla, in the mountainous region of Feyzabad, east of Kunduz, Afghanistan, on September 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

German ISAF soldiers secure an airfield next to a destroyed passenger plane left by the Russians in Kunduz on September 19, 2008. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

A member of Afghanistan's elite Civil Order Police looks through a window of his armored vehicle during a patrol in Marjah, southern Helmand province, on October 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Afghan schoolchildren follow ISAF soldiers with the German Federal Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) patrolling the mountain villages on the outskirts of Feyzabad on September 27, 2008. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Photographed through a burqa, Afghan women shop at a market in Kabul on April 11, 2013. Conservative religious lawmakers in Afghanistan blocked a law on May 18, 2013 that aimed to protect women's freedoms, with some arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles or encourage women to have sex outside of marriage. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino, of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, shouts out as he is rescued onto a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment after he was shot in the stomach outside Sangin, Helmand Province, on June 11, 2011. The Army's 'Dust Off' crew needed two attempts to get him out, as they were fired upon and took five rounds in the tail of their aircraft. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan woman holds her newly born baby wrapped in her burqa as she waits to get in line to try on a new burqa in a shop in the old town of Kabul on April 11, 2013. Despite advances in women's rights, Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative country and most women continue to wear the Burqa. But tradesmen say times are changing in Kabul at least, with demand for burqas declining as young women going to school and taking office jobs refuse to wear the cumbersome garments.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan police officer rushes to the scene where a rocket hit outside the luxury Serena Hotel in Kabul on November 21, 2009. At least two people were injured, the Afghan Interior Ministry said. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

A dog watches a Canadian soldier with the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, patrolling Salavat, Panjwayi district, southwest of Kandahar, on May 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan girl crosses a cemetary in the outskirts of Kabul on November 25, 2009. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan boy makes a face as Canadian soldiers with the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment and Afghan Army soldiers patrol the village of Salavat in the Panjwayi district, on June 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan girl writes on a board in front her class at the girls high school Ayeshe Sedeqa in the center of Kunduz, northern Afghanistan, on September 21, 2008. The Afghan government alleges the Taliban tried to poison students at girls' schools, causing outbreaks of sickness, and says 15 suspects were arrested. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Afghan army soldiers dance to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan at their combat outpost outside Salavat, Panjwaii district, on September 10, 2010. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan boy holds a toy gun as he enjoys a ride with others on a merry-go-round to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr festival in Kabul on September 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

A Canadian soldier with the 1st RCR Battle Group, The Royal Canadian Regiment, chases a chicken seconds before he and his unit were attacked by grenades shot over the wall during a patrol in Salavat, southwest of Kandahar, on September 11, 2010.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Seven year old Afghan girl Persia looks up as she flies onboard a Medevac helicopter from the US Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment to the next military hospital outside Sangin, Helmand Province, on June 7, 2011. Persia received head injuries after falling off a truck and was taken by her father to the next ISAF outpost seeking medical help.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

American soldiers salute while the national anthem is played during a ceremony marking Veterans Day at the U.S. Camp Eggers in Kabul on November 11, 2009. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan refugee girl reacts after another child stole her food voucher while she was queuing in front a truck organized by the World Food Program in Kabul, on March 4, 2012. Every day, 400 people join the ranks of a half million displaced by fighting and natural disaster in Afghanistan. Many are left to starve and die, even in the capital Kabul. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Afghan day laborer Zekrullah, 23, takes a break after preparing kilns to fire the bricks at a brick kiln factory on the outskirts of Kabul, on November 7, 2013. In the last two years as US and NATO troops prepare to leave Afghanistan, brick makers say business has dropped off by almost half. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan girl reacts as she arrives with her mother for treatment in the local hospital of Feyzabad, on September 28, 2008.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

School children pass by a painted sign reading, "ballot not bullet" on their way back home on the outskirts of Kandahar, on March 12, 2014. Warlords with a violent past have played a role in influencing Afghan politics since a U.S.-led coalition helped oust the Taliban in 2001. But they are emerging to play an overt political role in next month's presidential elections as President Hamid Karzai leaves the scene. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Afghan policemen run to jump on their car as Taliban militants attacked the main Afghan election commission's headquarters on the outskirts of Kabul, firing on the compound with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns from a house outside its perimeter wall on March 29, 2014. Dozens of employees and other people who had been inside the Independent Election Commission compound took cover in the basement, and no casualties were reported. But two warehouses were hit and set on fire, witnesses said. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Injured United States Marine Cpl. Burness Britt reacts after being lifted onto a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment, on June 4, 2011. Britt was wounded in an IED strike near Sangin, Helmand Province. At the Hunter Holmes Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, Britt is facing a long recovery after a large piece of shrapnel cut a major artery on his neck. During his first operation in Afghanistan he suffered a stroke and became partially paralyzed. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan woman peers through a window where women line up to have their picture taken to register for the upcoming presidential elections in a school in Kabul on March 18, 2014. Last-minute registration of voters continues despite the fact that more than 21 million voter registration cards have been issued while only roughly 12 million Afghans are eligible to vote. The discrepancy is the result of repeated registrations since the first round of elections in Afghanistan in 2004. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan man directs his children away from the scene where a suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul on May 16, 2013. A Muslim militant group, Hizb-e-Islami, claimed responsibility for the early morning attack, killing many in the explosion and wounding tens, police and hospital officials said. The powerful explosion rattled buildings on the other side of Kabul and sent a pillar of white smoke into the sky in the city's east. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Afghan lawmaker Hamida Ahmadzai, who represents Afghanistan's colorful Kuchi, poses for a picture inside the Afghan parliament in Kabul, on March 26, 2014. "In our Parliament we have 69 women, that is a large number, bigger even than European parliaments," Hamida said. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan nomad kisses his young daughter while watching his herd in Marjah, Helmand province, on October 20, 2012. In southern Helmand province, one of Afghanistan's deadliest battlefields, angry residents say 11 years of war has brought them widespread insecurity. They say they are too afraid to go out after dark because of marauding bands of thieves and during the day corrupt police and government officials bully them into paying bribes. Development that was promised hasn't materialized and the Taliban's rule is often said to be preferred. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

One of the last images captured by photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus. An Afghan girl helps her brother down from a security barrier set up outside the Independent Election Commission (IEC) office in the eastern Afgh

Afghanistan: Seen Through the Lens of Anja Niedringhaus

NOV 4, 2013 |0

Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus has been covering conflicts from Bosnia to Afghanistan for more than 20 years, earning a Pulitzer Prize in 2005, as part of a team of AP photographers covering the Iraq War. She has traveled to Afghanistan numerous times, photographing events from 2001 until today, sending photos from Kandahar as recently as yesterday. Documenting a decades-long story like the Afghanistan War is a challenge for any photojournalist, from simple logistical issues, to serious safety concerns, to the difficulty of keeping the narrative fresh and compelling. Niedringhaus has done a remarkable job, telling people's stories with a strong, consistent voice, an amazing eye for light and composition, and a level of compassion that clearly shows through her images. Gathered here are just a handful of her photos from the war-torn nation, part of the ongoing series here on Afghanistan. [40 photos]

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Afghan Army soldier Ahmad, 20, pauses as he cleans his weapon after at a training center on the outskirts of Kabul, on May 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

A US Marine on his way to pick up food supplies after they were dropped off by small parachutes from a plane outside Forward Operating Base Edi in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan, on June 9, 2011. The smoke in the background comes from burning parachutes the Marines destroyed after they reached the ground. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan girl tries to peer through the holes of her burqa as she plays with other children in the old town of Kabul, on April 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan walks through a river outside Feyzabad, east of Kunduz, on September 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Afghan National Army soldiers pose for portraits at the Chinari outpost in Logar province, on May 22, 2012. Left: Noor Ali, who believes he is 21 years old, lost his parents when he was young, never went to school, and worked as a laborer. He joined the army 10 months ago and learned basic reading and writing. He dyed his hair flaming red, explaining shyly, "I did this to look good. In my village it is popular." Center: Abdul Basir, 22, who joined the Afghan National Army in early 2012, only recently finishing his training which he said constituted learning to fight while on the run, to fire weapons, how to use silence and stealth to his advantage. He says he bears no ill will toward the Taliban. "They are human beings and Afghans but if they shoot at me I have to defend myself." Right: Noor Alam, 25, is from Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, where the vast majority are ethnic Pashtuns, the same as most Taliban. He recalls scary encounters with the Taliban in his four years in the army, but none as frightening as the one with U.S. Special Forces who he says mistook his base for a Taliban hide-out. "Their weapons were so strong. I have had bad experiences with the Taliban but this was the most frightening for me," he said. "Maybe they apologized to higher-ups, but no one apologized to us." He says he longs for "peace with all Afghans, living together. We shouldn't fight each other." (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An ISAF soldier with the German Federal Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) uses a picture of his family as a bookmark while he reads during a flight on a German army CH-53 helicopter from Kunduz to the German base in Fayzabad, northern Afghanistan, on September 24, 2008. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Food supplies for US Marines are dropped from a plane as a sandstorm approaches outside Forward Operating Base Edi in Helmand Province, on June 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan refugee girl reacts after another child stole her food voucher while she was queuing in front a truck organized by the World Food Program in Kabul, on March 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

(1 of 7) Blackhawk pilot CW 2 Robert A. Campbell, with the U.S. Army Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment, after landing safely back at his outpost outside of Sangin, Helmand Province, on June 3, 2011. During a rescue mission, his medevac helicopter came under fire and took bullets in the pilot's window and the helicopter's blades.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

(2 of 7) U.S. Marines evacuate their wounded comrade Cpl. Burness Britt onto a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment, after he was wounded in an IED strike near Sangin, Helmand Province, on June 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

(3 of 7) Injured U.S. Marine Cpl. Burness Britt, after being lifted onto a medevac helicopter, on June 4, 2011. Britt was wounded in an IED strike, a large piece of shrapnel cutting into a major artery on his neck. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

(4 of 7) U.S. Army chief Spc. Jenny Martinez holds the hand of Marine Cpl. Burness Britt on board a medevac helicopter, on June 4, 2011. During Britt's first operation in Afghanistan he suffered a stroke and became partially paralyzed.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

(5 of 7) Months after the IED attack, photographer Anja Niedringhaus tracked down Cpl. Burness Britt, hoping to learn of his recovery, and possibly to share some of her photos she had taken of his evacuation. Here, he reacts after seeing some of those pictures laid out on his bed in the Hunter Holmes Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, on December 13, 2011. Britt is facing a long recovery after a large piece of shrapnel from the IED cut a major artery on his neck. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

(6 of 7) Marine Cpl. Burness Britt points to the scar on his head in his room in the Hunter Holmes Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, on December 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

(7 of 7) Marine Cpl. Burness Britt walks on the grounds of the Hunter Holmes Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, wearing a helmet protecting his head after part of his skull had been removed, on December 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

A young man jumps from a diving board into a swimming pool on a hill overlooking Kabul, on May 17, 2013. The swimming pool build by the Soviets more then 30 years ago has rarely been used caught instead in the middle of decades of war.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

A German soldier lifts weights at his combat outpost in Char Darah, outisde Kunduz, on September 17, 2011.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

A German ISAF soldier, bearing a lucky charm attached on his bulletproof vest, enjoys a cigar after arriving with his unit back to the base in Feyzabad, east of Kunduz, on September 11, 2009. The unit was stuck for days in the area of Kunduz and came under heavy fire in which four soldiers where injured and evacuated to the field hospital in Kunduz. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

In this photo taken Saturday, September 11, 2010, an Afghan boy on a donkey reacts as Canadian soldiers with the 1st RCR Battle Group, The Royal Canadian Regiment, patrol in Salavat, southwest of Kandahar, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

A German ISAF soldier, member of the Quick Reaction Force (QRF), peers out of his armored vehicle after coming back from a mission outside Kunduz, on September 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan man watches his pigeons after feeding them in Kabul, on March 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Comrades of fallen Canadian trooper Larry Rudd carry his casket onto a plane during a ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield, on May 26, 2010. Rudd, 26, was the 146th member of the Canadian military to die in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Afghan men walk through the debris of their destroyed school in the village of Budyali, Nangarhar province, on March 19, 2013. Taliban militants attacked the nearby district headquarters in July 2011, then took refuge in the school. The Afghan National Army requested help from coalition forces, who responded with drones, fighter jets and rockets, leaving the school destroyed, according to village elders. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan man with his five children on his motorbike pays money to enter a park in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, on November 1, 2013. On Fridays, the Islamic day of rest and prayer, children and their families traditionally gather in one of the few parks.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

A German KZO drone, or unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicle, takes off from the German base outside Kunduz, on September 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Afghan prisoner Nuria, with her infant boy, at Badam Bagh, Afghanistan's central women's prison, in Kabul, on March 28, 2013. "When I went to court for a divorce, instead of giving me a divorce, they charged me with running away," Nuria said. The man she wanted to marry was also charged and is now serving time in Afghanistan's notorious Pul-e-Charkhi prison. 202 women live in the six-year-old jail, the majority of the women are serving sentences of up to seven years for leaving their husbands, refusing to accept a marriage arranged by their parents, or choosing to leave their parents' home with a man of their choice.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

A Canadian soldier with the 1st RCR Battle Group, the Royal Canadian Regiment, patrols with a sunflower stuck to his helmet in the Panjwaii district, near Salavat, southwest of Kandahar, on September 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

Boys play soccer during a break at their school in Kandahar, on October 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, file) #

A Canadian soldier with the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment fires an anti-tank rocket during an exercise in Khebari Ghar in the Panjwayi district, south-west of Kandahar, on June 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan policeman pushes people away after a bomb exploded under a car, leaving the driver dead, in the center of Kabul, on October 21, 2013. The Afghan Interior ministry confirmed that it was a magnetic bomb that destroyed the vehicle and killed the driver in the early morning rush hour. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

A U.S. soldier arrives on the scene where a suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul, on May 16, 2013. A Muslim militant group, Hizb-e-Islami, claimed responsibility for the early morning attack, killing many in the explosion and wounding tens, police and hospital officials said. The powerful explosion rattled buildings on the other side of Kabul and sent a pillar of white smoke into the sky in the city's east. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

A young Afghan girl tries to grab the crutches of her sister Amida while she is testing her new artificial limbs at the ICRC physical rehabilitation center in Kabul, on May 27, 2012. Since the ICRC began its rehabilitation program in Afghanistan in 1988, over 43,000 people, including 25,000 amputees, have been treated at its centers in Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat, Jalalabad and Gulbahar. Among the amputees registered, 77% were landmine victims and 70% civilians. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

A U.S. Marine dog handler attends to his his Improvised Detection Dog, after he was injured and rescued by a helicopter of the U.S. Army Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment, in Helmand Province, on June 3, 2011.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

In a traditional game, Afghan men fight each other with slings in a park in the center of Kandahar, on February 11, 2011.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan man and a boy listen to music on earphones from an iPod belonging to German ISAF soldiers, during a long-term patrol in Yaftal e Sofla, in the mountainous region of Feyzabad, east of Kunduz, on September 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #

An Afghan boy holding a toy gun enjoys a ride with others on a merry-go-round to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr festival, in Kabul, on September 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, file) #

Afghanistan: September 2013

Over the past few months here, I've focused on different aspect of the ongoing war in Afghanistan, featuring the region in the 1950s and 60s, the children of war, and the women of the war. Today's entry takes a look at events that took place in Afghanistan this summer. For Afghans, the violence continues, and deep uncertainty remains as they prepare for a presidential election next April, and the withdrawal of NATO troops by the end of next year. The photos here are part of the ongoing series here on Afghanistan. [34 photos]

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A man washes his horse in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 4, 2013. (Reuters/Mohammad Ismail)

An Italian airforce CH-47 Chinook of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) flies over Herat, Afghanistan on June 20, 2013. (Fabrizio Bensch/AFP/Getty Images) #

A truck driver transporting NATO military vehicles sleeps as he waits for registration before crossing the Torkham border into Pakistan, in eastern Nangarhar province on August 24, 2013. Military vehicles of NATO forces have started leaving the country via Pakistan as they conclude NATO duty in Afghanistan. (Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty Images) #

Kaden Bowden, son of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Joshua J. Bowden, looks at the casket for his father during burial services for Staff Sgt. Bowden at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, on September 27, 2013. Bowden was from Villa Rica, Georgia, and died on August 31, 2013, from injuries sustained while serving in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) #

Afghan policemen, near a crater at the scene of suicide attack in Maidan Shar, the capital of Wardak province, on September 8, 2013. At least four Afghan intelligence agents were killed and more than one hundred people were wounded, the provincial government said in a statement. (Reuters/Omar Sobhani) #

Afghan children play with plastic toy guns in Kabul, on August 8, 2013. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images) #

An Afghan farmer works on his farm on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif, on September 5, 2013. Only about 15 percent of Afghanistan's land, mostly in scattered valleys, is suitable for farming with about 6 percent of the land actually cultivated, with wheat being the most important crop. (Farshad Usyan/AFP/Getty Images) #

A suicide attacker lies on the ground after his vest was defused in Jalalabad province, on June 30, 2013. Afghan security forces captured the would-be suicide attacker before he was able to blow himself up. (Reuters/Parwiz) #

A soldier with the 2-244th Airfield Operations Battalion, Louisiana National Guard, hangs from the hoist of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter assigned to Task Force Gunfighters, 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, during hoist training above Multi-National Base Tarin Kot, Afghanistan, on September 19, 2013. (U.S. Army/Capt. Andrew Cochran) #

An Afghan security member takes a fingerprint from a dead Taliban fighter in a building which was used for an attack on the Kabul airport, on June 10, 2013. All seven militants who launched the attack died in the assault, Afghan police said, adding that no civilian or security force casualties had been reported. "There were seven assailants -- two (suicide bombers) died detonating themselves and five others were killed in fighting," Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, chief of Kabul police, told reporters.(Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images) #

Italian armed force soldiers of the mountain unit Alpini stand in line at the Herat airfield, on June 20, 2013.(Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch) #

An honor guard carries coffins of Georgian soldiers killed in Afghanistan at the airport in Tbilisi, June 9, 2013. A suicide bomber detonated a small truck loaded with explosives in southern Afghanistan, killing seven Georgian soldiers, NATO and Georgian officials said, and the Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility. (Reuters/David Mdzinarishvili) #

Afghan football fans climb an electrical pole to celebrate winning the South Asian Football Federation championship after their team defeated India during the final match, in Kabul, on September 12, 2013. President Hamid Karzai embraced Afghanistan's victorious football team on Thursday, hours after they united the nation in a rare moment of shared joy, but officials also told jubilant Afghans to stop firing guns into the air in celebration. The national men's team beat India 2-0 to win the championship in Kathmandu, Afghanistan's first international football title, sending tens of thousands of joyous Afghans into the streets.(Reuters/Mohammad Ismail) #

Afghan security personnel assist an injured police after a suicide car bombing and a gunfight near the U.S. consulate in Herat Province, on September 13, 2013. Taliban militants attacked the U.S. consulate in western Afghanistan, using a car bomb and guns to battle security forces just outside the compound in the city of Herat. (AP Photo/Hoshang Hashimi) #

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jason Dinkins with the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade is hugged by his daughter Olivia Chastain after a welcome home ceremony, on June 11, 2013 at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia, The aviation brigade deployed 2,200 soldiers to Afghanistan in December on a 9-month mission, but came home earlier than expected. (AP Photo/Stephen Morton) #

The Afghan landscape, seen from the crew chief's window of a 10th Combat Aviation Brigade UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter during a training flight, Sept. 18, over Kabul, Afghanistan. (U.S. Army/Capt. Peter Smedberg) #

The reflection of a UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter, seen in the visor of Sgt. Corey Konieczko, a UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter crew chief assigned to C Company, 2nd Battalion (Assault), 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, prior to a personnel movement mission, on September 25, 2013, at Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan. (U.S. Army/Capt. Peter Smedberg) #

Afghan police officers share a joke during a training session at the Police Academy in Kabul, on September 25, 2013. Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Interior Ministry, admitted that there were problems involving women in the police force but said the government plans to double the number of female officers from 2,200 to more than 4,000 in time for next April's presidential and provincial elections. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid) #

Afghanistan security forces take a position during an attack on the US consulate in Herat, on September 13, 2013.(Aref Karimi/AFP/Getty Images) #

An injured Afghan boy with blood on his face walks at the site of bomb explosion in Jalalabad province, on August 6, 2013. A remote control bomb went off in Jalalabad city, killing one person and injuring three others, provincial officials said. (Reuters/Parwiz) #

Afghan shopkeepers wait for customers at their stall overlooking Naghlu lake on the outskirts of Kabul, on September 11, 2013.(AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid) #

Afghan youths light candles in front of the destroyed palace of Darul Aman to mark the killing of 5,000 civilians by the communist regime during the Russian occupation, in Kabul, on September 29, 2013. Afghanistan observed two days of official mourning for people killed by the communist regime in the late 1970s after a list of thousands of the dead was released.(Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images) #

Disabled Afghan men play wheelchair basketball at one of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) basketball clubs for war victims and the disabled in Jalalabad, on August 19, 2013. Afghanistan is still one of the most heavily mined countries in the world despite international efforts to clean the impoverished nation of millions of mines. (Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty Images) #

A U.S. Army carry team carries the flag-draped transfer case with the remains of Army Staff Sergeant Octavio Herrera of Caldwell, Idaho, across the tarmac during a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base August 14, 2013 in Dover, Delaware. Herrera died August 11 of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Paktia Province, Afghanistan. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) #

Members of a motorcycle honor guard pay respects to Elizabeth Harman, sister of Lt. Col. Jaimie Leonard, who was killed in Afghanistan by an Afghan soldier along with two other Americans earlier this month, and who was laid to rest at the United States Military Academy Cemetery on Thursday June 20, 2013, in West Point, New York. (AP Photo/Philip Kamrass) #

An Afghan shepherd guides his flock of sheep along a desert path in Helmand province, on September 22, 2013.(USMC/Cpl. Paul Peterson) #

Afghan security personnel walk near bodies of Taliban fighters after a firefight in Torkham, on September 2, 2013. A group of Taliban suicide bombers and gunmen attacked a US base near the Pakistani border in eastern Afghanistan, sparking a three-hour shootout, officials said. No member of the US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan was killed in the attack, said a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). (Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty Images) #

U.S. soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment man an observation post while 3rd Platoon, 87th Sapper Company conducts route clearance along Highway 1 Wardak province, on August 12, 2013. (U.S. Army/1st Lt. Yau-liong Tsai) #

Khudaidad Mohmand, 28, performs ablution for prayers in the Kabul River as the sun sets on the outskirts of Jalalabad, on June 10, 2013. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) #

Afghan boys play near their house in Kabul, on August 22, 2013. (Reuters/Mohammad Ismail) #

An Afghan policewoman beats a woman as she waits for a donation of food material during the month of Ramadan in Kabul, on August 1, 2013. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images) #

Afghan footballers participate in a training session at Kabul stadium, on September 2, 2013. Some 144 Afghan footballers, who represent eight regional teams in the Afghan Premier League (APL), are accommodated in a sprawling house in the Afghan capital where they live, eat and sleep during the seven-week season, earning just 9 USD a day. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images) #

Afghan security personnel investigate the site of an attack in Kabul, on June 10, 2013. Seven Taliban insurgents including suicide bombers attacked the main airport in the Afghan capital, with explosions and gunfire heard near an area that also houses major foreign military bases. (Reuters/Mohammad Ismail) #

Afghan municipality workers remove blood from a site of an explosion in Jalalabad province, on July 16, 2013. A bomb planted on a bicycle detonated killing at least two people and injuring three others, a police officer said. (Reuters/Parwiz)