Afghanistan

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In this picture taken Sunday, May 8, 2011, US Marine Staff Sgt. Tony Palomo of Louisiana is flown to hospital on a medevac helicopter from the US Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment north of Forward Operating Base Edi, after being injured in an IED blast in the volatile Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

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During a helicopter rescue mission, Staff Sgt. Brenden Patterson, of Las Vegas, center, an Air Force Pararescueman, or "PJ," of the 58th Rescue Squadron, gets help from two U.S. soldiers, one of whom applies a tourniquet, left, as he treats an Afghan boy who stepped on an IED, severing his right foot and most of a hand, in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, Wednesday July 28, 2010. The PJs and helicopter aircrews are part of the U.S. Air Force's 451st Air Expeditionary Wing based at Kandahar Air Field, which provides a variety of air assets in southern Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

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U.S. Marines run through dust kicked up by a Black Hawk helicopter from Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment as they rush a colleague wounded in an IED strike for evacuation near Sangin, in the volatile Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, May 10, 2011. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

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Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday. NATO’s top official said the alliance remains committed to help enable Afghan forces to assume full responsibility for the country’s security. (The Associated Press)

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Members of the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP) line up to get counter-IED training at Forward Operating Base Warrior in the Gelan district of Afghanistan's Ghazni province on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Robert Burns)

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Afghan President Hamid Karzai (right) speaks during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

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D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes-Norton greets each of the 70 D.C. Army National Guard soldiers with the 273rd military police company returning from Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan after 10 months during a welcome home ceremony held in front of the D.C. Armory, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, October 16, 2012. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Soldiers applaud as 70 D.C. Army National Guard soldiers with the 273rd military police company returning from Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan are welcomed home at a ceremony held in front of the D.C. Armory, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, October 16, 2012. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Family and friends take photos with their phones as 70 D.C. Army National Guard soldiers with the 273rd military police arrive in formation for their welcome home ceremony after returning from Bagram Air Base after 10 months, Afghanistan, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, October 16, 2012. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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70 D.C. Army National Guard soldiers with the 273rd military police company returning from Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan after 10 months arrive in formation for their welcome home ceremony held in front of the D.C. Armory, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, October 16, 2012. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Illustration China in Afghanistan by John Camejo for The Washington Times

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In this Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012, photo, Afghanistan’s first female rapper Sosan Firooz sings in a studio in Kabul, Afghanistan. Firooz, 23-year-old singer is making history in her homeland where society frowns on women who take the stage. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

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On Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Afghan Gen. Majid Rouzi, a former civil war commander who now is an adviser to the Ministry of Interior, shows off his favorite civil war photograph, in which he is pictured with one of the best-known Afghan military leaders, Ahmad Shah Massoud. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)