Afghanistan

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Marc Grossman, U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, speaks during a press conference at a meeting of the International Contact Group in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday, June 27, 2011. Mr. Grossman said Pakistan must prove it wants an end to the war by preventing militants from hiding out on its soil and enabling those who launch attacks on the Afghan side of the border. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS "Three Cups of Tea" co-author Greg Mortenson (left) shows the locations of future village schools to Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the opening of Pushghar Village Girls School, 60 miles north of Kabul in the Panjshir Valley, Afghanistan, in July, 2009.

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An injured Afghan man, a victim of a blast lies in a hospital bed in Kunduz city in the northern province of Kunduz, Afghanistan, Saturday, June 25, 2011. A bicycle rigged with explosives ripped through a bazaar in the Khanabad district of Kunduz province on Friday, killing at least 10 people, including a police officer. At least 24 people were wounded in the attack, according to an Interior Ministry statement. (AP Photo/Balal)

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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talks on June 23, 2011,with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (left), Massachusetts Democrat, and the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, on Capitol Hill prior to testifying before the committee on American policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Associated Press)

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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies June 23, 2011, on Capitol Hill before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about American policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Associated Press)

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Spc. Gavin Fruge, 22, of Crowley, La., left, watches a rebroadcast of President Barack Obama's speech on proposed troop withdrawal with fellow soldiers at Kandahar Airfield Thursday, June 23, 2011, in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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Returning to the U.S. for a two-week leave from combat duty in Afghanistan, Army Staff Sgt. Gilberto Serrano, of San Antonio, Texas, smiles as he is greeted by volunteers from “Welcome Home A Hero” program at Dallas-Fort Worth International airport in Grapevine, Texas, Wednesday, June 22, 2011. President Barack Obama is likely to bring home 10,000 forces from Afghanistan this year and up to 20,000 more by the end of 2012. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS President Obama is in the process of finalizing the number of troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan, according to a spokesman.

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A German soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) guards a road at the site of a suicide attack on a German military convoy, in Kunduz, north of Kabul, Afghanistan on June 19, 2011. (Associated Press)

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Afghan police officers secure an area close to a police station which came under attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, June 18, 2011. Men dressed in Afghan army uniforms stormed the police station near the presidential palace and opened fire said Mohammed Honayon, an eyewitness said. President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that Afghanistan and the United States are engaged in peace talks with the Taliban, even as insurgents stormed a police station killing three people. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

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Afghan police officers inspect the site of a blast in the central province of Ghazni, Afghanistan, Saturday, June 18, 2011. Two roadside bomb attacks on Saturday killed four private security guards escorting supply convoys for a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan, a police chief said. (AP Photo/Rahmatullah Nikzad)

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PRATIK SHAH/THE WASHINGTON TIMES Eleven prominent Afghan women, including (from left) Hasina Safi, Farkhunda Naderi and Samira Hamidi, called on the United States to push for the inclusion of more female leaders in peace talks to end the war in Afghanistan. "We want to take charge of our country ourselves," Ms. Hamidi said.

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**FILE** Osama bin Laden is pictured here in Afghanistan in April, 1998. (Associated Press)

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Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawid Luddin speaks during a press conference with Afghan presidential spokesman Waheed Omar and Masoom Stanekzai, secretary of a peace council set up by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on June 12, 2011. (Associated Press)

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Illustration: Afghanistan

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**FILE** A U.S. Predator drone flies over southern Afghanistan. (Associated Press)

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Ryan C. Crocker (left) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry greet each other Wednesday before a two-hour hearing on Mr. Crocker's nomination to be the next U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. (Associated Press)

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Ryan Crocker, President Obama's nominee for ambassador to Afghanistan, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday, June 8, 2011, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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U.S. Marines evacuate a wounded comrade 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, in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan, on Saturday, June 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

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In this photo provided by the International Security Assistance Force Regional Command (South), U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates meets with service members at Forward Operating Base Walton on Sunday, June 5, 2011, in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Photo/US. Navy, Lt. j.g. Haraz N. Ghanbari)