A visual history of conflict in Afghanistan
Soldiers carry the casket of Master Cpl. Francis Roy, a member of the Canadian Army's special forces regiment, to a waiting aircraft during a ramp ceremony in the early hours Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at Afghanistan's Kandahar Airfield. Roy was found mortally wounded by fellow soldiers early Saturday at a forward operating base in Kandahar city.David Goldman
A Canadian Army crewman stands inside a CH-47 Chinook helicopter flying over Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, July 5, 2011.BAZ RATNER
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.CARLOS BARRIA
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.YANNIS BEHRAKIS
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.GLEB GARANICH
U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Chris Sanderson, 24, from Flemington, New Jersey shouts as he tries to protect an Afghan man and his child after Taliban fighters opened fire in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, February 13, 2010.GORAN TOMASEVIC
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.GORAN TOMASEVIC
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.FINBARR O'REILLY
A victim is taken away from the site of a bomb blast in Kabul, December 15, 2009.AHMAD MASOOD
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 Kabul, December 14, 2001.DAMIR SAGOLJ
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, August 22, 2010.BOB STRONG
Northern Alliance fighters ride on a T-62 tank past a dead body on the motorway 3 km north of Kabul, in this November 13, 2001.YANNIS BEHRAKIS
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.FINBARR O'REILLY
Graffiti left behind by Taliban fighters remains on the walls of a compound now used as a command center for the U.S Marine Corps's First Battalion, Eighth Marines at Musa Qala in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, November 10, 2010.FINBARR O'REILLY
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.ANDREW BIRAJ
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.JASON REED
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.TIM WIMBORNE
A woman walks past riot police outside a gathering in Kabul's stadium, February 23, 2007.AHMAD MASOOD
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates conducts a town hall meeting with U.S. Marines and other military service personnel at the Forward Operating Base Bastion in Helmand Province, May 7, 2009.JASON REED
Afghan soldiers sit on a ledge overlooking the valley of Bamian in central Afghanistan, September 22, 2005.DESMOND BOYLAN
Afghan traffic police officers stand near the destroyed King's Palace in Kabul, August 29, 2005.POOL
Anti-Taliban Afghan fighters watch several explosions from U.S. bombings in the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan, December 16, 2001.ERIK DE CASTRO
Children play on diving platforms at an empty pool in Kabul, June 5, 2007.AHMAD MASOOD
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.DAMIR SAGOLJ
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.JIM HOLLANDER
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.LARRY DOWNING
A donkey transports ballot boxes to villages unreachable by vehicles in Panjshir province, north of Kabul, September 17, 2010.AHMAD MASOOD
Afghans soccer players gather in front of the destroyed Darul Aman palace in Kabul, June 1, 2010.AHMAD MASOOD
Afghan men harvest opium in a poppy field in a village in the Golestan district of Farah province, May 5, 2009.GORAN SIVACKI
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.FINBARR O'REILLY
Women beg on a road as snow falls in Kabul, January 13, 2009.AHMAD MASOOD
A father wipes a tear away from his child's face during a Medevac mission in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, November 13, 2010.PETER ANDREWS
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.ADREES LATIF
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, July 23, 2010.BOB STRONG
A combination picture shows Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers posing for portraits at their compound at Panjwai district in Kandahar, June 1, 2009.JORGE SILVA
A French sniper (R) looks through his rifle's scope while keeping watch over Qarabagh district, about 40 km north of Kabul, November 20, 2007.AHMAD MASOOD
Afghan boy walks next to a pile of Russian-made helmets in the Panjshir Valley, some 100km north of Kabul, August 10, 2005.AHMAD MASOOD
An Afghan man walks by stacks of worthless Afghani notes in an underground strongroom of the country's national bank in Kabul, November 29, 2001.DAMIR SAGOLJ
Osama bin Laden (L) sits with his adviser Ayman al-Zawahri, an Egyptian linked to the al Qaeda network, during an interview with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir (not pictured) in an image supplied by the respected Dawn newspaper, November 10, 2001.HO
Foreign members of the Taliban read the Koran in a military jail in Kabul, November 26, 2001.DAMIR SAGOLJ
In this file picture released exclusively to Reuters on January 17, 2009, Taliban militants are seen with their weapons in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan on January 16, 2009.STRINGER/AFGHANISTAN/Reuters
Residents of Kabul make their way to greet Northern Alliance fighters arriving in the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul, November 13, 2001.YANNIS BEHRAKIS
A school girl is seen at a hospital after she was poisoned at Qazaaq primary school in Kapisa province, north of Kabulin, May 12, 2009.AHMAD MASOOD
A Hazara girl covers her face as she holds a child in a cave in Bamiyan, December 15, 2001.PETER ANDREWS
A wounded Canadian soldier from the NATO-led coalition crawls for cover seconds after his position was hit by a Taliban shell fired from an 82-millimeter recoilless rifle during an ambush in Zhari district of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, October 23, 2007.FINBARR O'REILLY
An Afghan girl reads from the board in a home-based school in Kabul, December 2, 2001.DAMIR SAGOLJ
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.BOB STRONG
A crowd watches an Afghan National Army Air Corps helicopter carrying President Hamid Karzai during an election rally in Gardez, capital of Paktia province, south of Kabul, August 4, 2009.AHMAD MASOOD
Afghans walk down a hill in Kabul, April 23, 2007. Ten years ago, U.S. forces began bombing Afghanistan in retaliation against its Taliban rulers who refused to hand over the al Qaeda leaders responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.AHMAD MASOOD
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.FINBARR O'REILLY
An Afghan policeman secures the area of a suicide attack in Kabul, August 18, 2009.AHMAD MASOOD
Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah sits on a carpet while interacting with the media at the end of an election rally in central Bamiyan province, July 29, 2009.AHMAD MASOOD
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.FINBARR O'REILLY
Canadian soldiers sit onboard a Canadian Air Force C-17 aircraft as they prepare to leave Afghanistan at Kandahar Air Field on June 30, 2011.BAZ RATNER/Reuters
Canadian soldiers accompanied by Afghan National Army soldiers secure the area near Howz-e-Madad ahead of a 'shura' December 23, 2006 in the Panjwaii District of southern Afghanistan as Chinook helicopters hover overhead.Kevin Van Paassen