Ian
priscilla 1Recent scenes from Afghanistan
May 1st 2009 09:00
As reported on Boston.com , Barack Obama has ordered an additional 21,000 U.S. troops to be deployed to Afghanistan, which will bring the full U.S. deployment there to a total of 60,000 troops, joining 39,000 coalition troops from 43 countries. The U.S. administration plans to impose benchmarks for progress on both Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan, who struggle with problems tied to tribal rivalries, illegal drug production and distribution, religious factions, general instability and poverty. Below are photos from the last few months in Afghanistan and the people whose lives are affected by the conflict. Many more images can be seen here.
An Afghan village seen from above, amidst fields of opium poppy and wheat in Farah Province, Afghanistan on March 17, 2009. U.S. Marines, who expanded into the area last November, are soon to be joined by thousands more American troops as part of an additional 17,000 U.S. forces being sent to the war.
U.S. Army soldiers with the 1-6 Field Artillery division patrol an area where there has been reported Taliban presence February 18, 2009 in Gandalabog, Afghanistan.
Mohammed Amin, an Afghan boy, waits to sell balloons in a field in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 27, 2009.
Former Taliban militants hold their heavy and light weapons during a ceremony to hand over them to the Afghan government in the city of Herat province west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 10, 2009. Around 40 Taliban militants from Herat province handed their weapons to the Afghan government as part of a peace-reconciliation program.
Nasim, a heroin addict for the last 5 years stands inside the abandoned Russian Cultural centre used as the heroin gathering point in the capital city February 08, 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Heroin addicts are on the increase in Kabul as the numbers of unemployed increase and the drug continues to be readily available and extremely cheap at only 50 afghany per hit or $1 USD. Afghanistan accounts for more than 90 per cent of the world's heroin supply. Its annual opium harvest is worth up to $3 billion, or almost half the country's official gross domestic product. Profits from heroin fund the Taliban, along with corrupt Afghan officials who profit from it.
Afghan horsemen play Afghanistan's national sport Buzkashi in the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, March 20, 2009. Buzkashi is the national sport of Afghanistan, which literally translated means "goat grabbing.
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