Afghanistan

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**FILE** Afghan special forces are seen June 22, 2012, outside the Spozhmai hotel at Lake Qargha, just north of Kabul, Afghanistan, where security officials say Taliban insurgents have killed at least 17 people, most of them civilians, in an attack that began before midnight. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** A U.S. soldier patrols a police station after it was attacked June 19, 2012, by militants in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Associated Press)

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** FILE ** This is an undated file photo of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. (AP Photo, File)

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Afghan soldiers at the Chinari outpost and elsewhere in Afghanistan are limited by a lack of equipment needed to do their jobs, yet they say they aren't afraid of the Taliban and expect the fighting to stop once U.S. and NATO forces leave in 2014. Most of the soldiers say they enlisted because they love their country and because the $250 monthly salary offers a way out of poverty. (Associated Press)

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A man in Karachi, Pakistan, naps on Thursday, May 17, 2012, on one of the oil tankers used to transport NATO fuel supplies to neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan closed the supply route to Afghanistan after American airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani troops along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in November. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

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Villagers gather at a house destroyed in an apparent NATO raid in Logar province, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday, June 6, 2012. Afghan officials and residents say the airstrike, aimed at militants, killed civilians celebrating a wedding, including women and children. (AP Photo/Ihsanullah Majroh)

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In this Wednesday, June 6, 2012, photo, a Pakistani man cleans the roof of an oil tanker that was used to transport NATO fuel supplies to Afghanistan, and parked with other tankers in a compound in Karachi, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

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A U.S. Marine sits with his bomb-sniffing buddy aboard a helicopter during a medevac mission in Afghanistan's Helmand province in February 2010. The dog, which had stopped performing well possibly due to stress, according to his handler, was evacuated along with a wounded Afghan civilian. (Associated Press)