Erik De Castro / Reuters
U.S. Army soldier Spc. Katie Luna of 572nd Military Intelligence Company, 8th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, cries while paying respects during a memorial service for platoon member, late Spc. Brittany Gordon at Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, Oct. 19, 2012. Gordon was killed last Saturday along with a U.S. civilian and two others, after an Afghan police officer detonated a suicide vest he was wearing, a military officer said.
Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images
Two U.S. soldiers with an Afghan colleague, right, secure a position behind a mud wall on Sept. 8, at a compound during a random stop to collect biodata from a villager as they carry out a joint patrol of the Morghan-Khecha village in Daman district, Kandahar province. Afghanistan's first vice president warned deteriorating security could jeopardize transparent elections in 2014 as Kabul prepares to take over from NATO troops. President Hamid Karzai, who has been the only elected head of state in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down the Taliban, is due to stand down in 2014. His re-election in 2009 was accompanied by allegations of widespread fraud and the international community sees the next vote as one of the last major hurdles before NATO combat troops withdraw at the end of 2014.
Related story: Six people, including young children, die in suicide bomb attack on Afghan NATO HQ
Allauddin Khan / AP
An elderly Afghan man sits next to a covered body, who was allegedly killed by a U.S. service member, in a minibus in Panjwai, Kandahar province south of Kabul, Afghanistan, March 11. Villagers showed an Associated Press photographer 15 bodies, including women and children, and alleged they were killed by the American.
A U.S. service member killed at least 15 members of two Afghan families as well as a 16th person before turning himself in, witnesses and officials said Sunday. Nine of the dead were children, and three were women, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement.
The soldier, who has yet to be identified, reportedly left his base in the early hours Sunday and went to two villages just a few hundred yards away. He then opened fire on Afghan civilians sleeping in ther homes, Minister of Border and Tribal Affairs Asadullah Khalid told Reuters. The service member entered three homes in the villages in Kandahar province, he said.
-- Reported by msnbc.com staff and news services
A U.S. service member opened fire on Afghan civilians in Kandahar province, entering their homes in the middle of the night to carry out the attack, officials said Sunday. NBC's Atia Abawi reports.
Ahmad Nadeem / Reuters
A blood-stained turban is seen at the site where Kandahar's city mayor Ghulam Haidar Hamidi was killed after a suicide blast in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on July 27.
Reuters reports from KANDAHAR:
The mayor of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar city was killed in a suicide bomb attack on Wednesday, officials said, just two weeks after the controversial and powerful brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was assassinated in the same city.
Mayor Ghulam Haidar Hamidi was killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a corridor near Hamidi's office, said Zalmay Ayoubi, the spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor.
"It appears the bomber was carrying the bomb in his turban," Ayoubi said. Continue reading.
Ahmad Nadeem / Reuters
An Afghan man attends to his wounded brother at a hospital after a roadside bomb blast in Panjwai district of Kandahar on May 24. Ten Afghan construction workers were killed and 28 wounded when their truck hit a roadside bomb in the Panjwai district of southern Kandahar province, said Kandahar health official Abdul Qayum Pukhla.
According to our report today, violence is at its worst in Afghanistan since U.S.-backed forces toppled the Taliban in 2001. Last year saw record casualties on all sides and this year is following a similar trend.
See more images from Afghanistan in our slideshow.
Paula Bronstein / Getty Images
Sergeant Jay Kenney, 26, with the 101st Airborne Division, Task Force Destiny, assists wounded Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers off the Blackhawk UH-60A helicopter after they were rescued in an air mission in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Dec. 12. According to sources, a large improvised explosive device caused casualties amongst both U.S. and ANA forces.
A suicide bomber drove a van packed with explosives into a building at an outpost in the south, collapsing a wall and burying troops. NBC's Atia Abawi reports.
As a journalist, a frequent regret of mine is that we meet people and report their stories, but we seldom have the time to find out what happened next in their lives. There's rarely a "The End" in the news business.
After witnessing a life-changing moment for a young soldier in Afghanistan, some Associated Press photographers took the time to find out what happened next.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
A U.S. medevac helicopter arrives to evacuate Spc. Jeremy Kuehl, 24 of Altoona, Iowa, and from the 1-320th Alpha Battery, 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, who was seriously wounded when he stepped on an improvised mine near Command Outpost Nolen, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, Kandahar, Afghanistan, July 30, 2010.
Photographers Rodrigo Abd and Evan Vucci spent weeks embedded with U.S. soldiers at COP Nolen, an outpost in volatile southern Afghanistan. Day after day, the soldiers at the outpost were fired on by insurgents. The photographers Photoblogged for msnbc.com from Afghanistan to report on the daily lives of soldiers, from the incoming RPG rounds to the quieter moments of humor and boredom among the men.
On July 29, the photographers woke to the sound of an explosion. Rodrigo Abd describes the scene:
At 6 a.m. on July 29, I had just woken up when I heard a huge explosion. Rushing outside, I saw a tall column of smoke just 20 meters (60 feet) away, and soldiers walking toward me carrying Spc. Jeremy Kuehl. His squad had been all set to go on patrol when it triggered a homemade bomb or IED, an improvised explosive device. PV2 James Stenett was injured in the face. Kuehl lost a leg.
As they waited for the rescue helicopter, the soldiers held a tourniquet to Kuehl's leg, assured him help was on the way, and fired a red flare to signal one of the few flat patches that could serve as a landing zone. Kuehl was in shock but remained conscious, answering the troops' questions. The mood was hyper-tense.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
U.S. soldiers carry Spc. Kuehl to a medical evacuation helicopter after he was wounded.
Months later, Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti met Spc. Kuehl stateside. Morenatti writes:
Sitting in a wheelchair at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the 24-year-old soldier from Altoona, Iowa, smiles as he stares into the computer screen and sees himself on a stretcher. Flipping from photo to photo, he narrates the last minutes of his war in Afghanistan, 11,000 kilometers (7,000 miles) away. His voice barely audible, he remembers the name and rank of each of the soldiers who got him to the rescue helicopter.
Then he falls silent, swivels in his wheelchair and goes to his room for some rest before his physiotherapy begins.
Emilio Morenatti / AP
Spc. Kuehl leaves his room for his physical therapy session at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington Aug. 31.
Kuehl knows that I'm a fellow patient, having lost my leg to an IED while on assignment in Afghanistan, and am back at Walter Reed for a checkup. He's curious to see my leg; is it computerized? I tell him I prefer a mechanical one, because the high-tech kind is apt to break down if you run.
On my visits to the amputee clinic over the course of six months, I have seen the number of patients swell as the war has ramped up. The physiotherapists and prosthetics makers can hardly cope.
Kuehl lies down on a spare bed and asks for a couple of weights to work out his pectoral muscles. "Before, I could lift more than 60 kilograms; now I barely can (lift) 15," he says as he struggles with the dumbbell. His left leg is a bandaged stump above the knee. His right leg, also injured, is in a splint.
Emilio Morenatti / AP
Spc. Kuehl writes an email at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
He returns to his bed and lies on his back, eyes fixed on the ceiling. Sitting in a corner is his aunt Janice. The day before, he was visited by President Barack Obama, who gave him a Purple Heart, the medal for being wounded in combat.
Kuehl is with 1-320th Alpha Battery, 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, and its symbol, the Screaming Eagle, decorates his sweat shirt, the entrance to his room, and the Airborne's flag hanging on the wall. The Purple Heart lies on his bedside table.
The room is adorned with messages from relatives and friends. The one from Obama says: "To Jeremy, The Nation Is Proud Of You."
Janice Harbaugh / Walter Reed Army Medical Center via AP
President Barack Obama places the Purple Heart on Spc. Kuehl during a private ceremony at his room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington Monday, Aug. 30.
Within 20 minutes of the explosion, the Medevac helicopter landed in a thick cloud of dust. Kuehl and Stenett were loaded on board. It took off just a couple of minutes later.
Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP
Afghan children with sheep walk through a path covered with fallen leaves in Panjwai district, Afghanistan's Kandahar province, on Friday, Nov. 26.
The color and light in this picture give it a painterly quality.
David Guttenfelder / AP
U.S. Air Force pararescuemen ride in the back of their medivac helicopter with the American flag-draped bodies of U.S. soldiers who were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan's Kandahar province on Oct. 10, 2010. The pararescuemen and pilots from the 46th and 26th Expeditionary Rescue Squadrons responded to the attack which killed two American soldiers and wounded three others.
AP photographer David Guttenfelder was aboard an Air Force Expeditionary Rescue Squadron helicopter that responded to a call about a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle that had been struck by an IED in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. Two of the American soldiers aboard the armored vehicle were killed, and three had been seriously injured.
Guttenfelder describes the scene: “We landed in a huge marijuana field, which is growing everywhere in the area, and I could see as we were coming in that the vehicle was completely destroyed; there was nothing left of it and the soldiers were kneeling by the side of the road with their two fallen colleagues, waiting for the helicopter to land.
“On the flight back, they took two flags out of the back of the helicopter and unfolded them and carefully took the bodies of the soldiers and placed them in bags and then wrapped them in American flags in the back of the helicopter. And the helicopter is flying at 150 miles an hour, very low, tactical flying because they’re taking contact often from the enemy.
“When the pararescue guys were covering the bodies in the back of the helicopter, they had only two flags with them. The wind was whipping through the open window … A medic was unfolding one of the flags and handed it to me to free his hands when
the wind caught it and it blew out the window and they lost it. So they only had one flag.
"They were talking to each other on the radios, ‘What are we gonna do?’ One of the pilots had a flag that he kept inside, behind the plate of his flak jacket that he’d kept with him for every deployment he’d ever done – in Iraq, and Afghanistan, he flew over Washington D.C. with it, his children had kissed it and his friends had signed it and he carried it in his flak jacket since he started in the Air Force. He took it out and passed it to the back of the helicopter and that was one of the flags that they used to cover one of the guys.”
When asked how the soldiers reacted to him shooting pictures during such a personal, sensitive moment, Guttenfelder said, “The soldiers were as respectful of me as I was of them.
“I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think it was important, because it’s not an easy thing to do.”
Guttenfelder has been covering the war in Afghanistan for nine years.
David Guttenfelder / AP
U.S. soldiers carry the body of one of the two American soldiers killed to a medical evacuation helicopter.
David Guttenfelder / AP
Soldiers carry the bodies of fellow soldiers toward the helicopter.
David Guttenfelder / AP
U.S. Air Force pararescuemen place the bodies of U.S. soldiers into body bags in the back of their medivac helicopter.
David Guttenfelder / AP
U.S. Air Force pararescuemen pass an American flag to one another in the back of their medivac helicopter as they prepare to wrap the bodies.
David Guttenfelder / AP
U.S. Air Force pararescuemen wait in the back of the medivac helicopter while the door gunner mans the .50 caliber machine gun.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
A U.S. soldier takes a nap after a movie in a cinema at a new recreation facility in Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, Oct. 16.
Photo courtesy Cpl. Ryan A. Kemp
Cpl. Ryan Kemp, back to camera, and his fellow soldiers enjoy a soak in a swimming pool made of sand bags and plastic in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, May 2009.
When the picture of a soldier in the movie theatre moved across the wire this morning, I was reminded of the image my cousin, Ryan, posted on his Facebook page from his recent tour in Afghanistan of him and his buddies in a homemade swimming pool. I was struck by the contrast of how posh the surroundings seem to be at the Kandahar Airfield in comparison to the harsh environment of the Helmand Province. The less-than-ideal conditions of Helmand in which showers and numerous other comforts aren't available for months, inspired Ryan and his fellow Marines to get pretty creative with what was available to them. They also built a couch out of MRE boxes and sandbags.
Courtesy of Evan Vucci / AP
(Above) Evan Vucci shoots video of soldiers during a firefight at Combat Outpost Nolen near Kandahar, Afghanistan in July 2010. (Below) Photographers, including Vucci in pale blue shirt and sunglasses near top of frame, surround President Barack Obama during a tour of areas impacted by the Gulf Coast oil spill in May 2010 in Port Fourchon, La.
Courtesy of Evan Vucci / AP
"I don't get it, I have to be here. You don't."
I can't tell you how many times I've heard that from a service member while on an embed, and I'm still struggling to figure out why I do this.
I'm not a war photographer. I spend the majority of my life kneeling on hearing room floors in the Senate in Washington, or lined up with fifty other photographers in front of a podium.
But working in Iraq or Afghanistan is my passion. Like many photographers I was inspired by James Nachtwey, Christopher Morris, Robert Capa, and Sebastiao Salgado among others. Like them, I wanted to be a famous war photographer. But the first time a bullet snaps past your head, those shallow motivations go out the window.
For every new trip there is a certain level of excitement and fear.
While on assignment I rely on the U.S. military for protection, food, transportation and shelter. I spend long days with these men and we pass the time by getting to know one another. I'm always amazed by their openness, willingness to talk, and hospitality. Not all the stories are positive, but they're honest. It's not easy walking into a platoon's life after they've lost a member to injury or death, but the guys "in the suck" just want their stories told.
The last day of our embed a young man lost his leg in an IED blast. It was a horrific scene, and another reminder of just how dangerous Combat Outpost Nolen is. Dangerous enough that we cut our embed short by a few days. We made a decision that no one in the military can make -- we left. As you are reading this, the young men at Nolen are still leaving the relative safety of the combat outpost to go on patrol, still dealing with the heat, the flies, the gunfire, the homemade bombs and the rocket propelled grenades. They can't pack up and leave.
I'm a war zone tourist -- I fly into an outpost, spend a few weeks telling the stories of those men, and then I leave.
So why do I do this? I guess I'll never have a great answer. But I do believe in the power of photography to spark a conversation. The image of a lone Chinese man standing in front of a column of tanks, an execution in a Saigon street, a Vietnamese girl running naked after a napalm attack, charred remains hanging from a bridge outside of Fallujah, a young soldier fighting in a pair of pink boxers all add to our collective understanding of war.
But at the end of the day, it's about capturing a moment that leads to insight of a battle fought a world away. It's about coming to grips with man's ultimate inhumanity.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
U.S. Army soldiers assist PV2 James Stennett from 1-320th Alpha Battery, 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, Friday, July 29, after he was caught in the blast of an improvised mine near COP Nolen, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
U.S. Army soldiers carry a seriously wounded comrade to a medical helicopter as others attend Pvt. Stennett, left.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
U.S. Army soldier Sgt. Liddle, left, helps PV2 Stennett to a medical evacuation helicopter.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
A U.S. medical helicopter arrives to evacuate soldiers who were wounded when one stepped on an improvised explosive device.
Editor's note: Two Associated Press photographers Photoblogged this summer from an embed with the U.S. military in Afghanstan. This was their last post. The rest of the series is below, in reverse chronological order.
It’s nothing like the movies. There's no glamour when a young man loses his leg to a hidden bomb. There's nothing romantic about the ear-piercing shrieks from a man as his leg is torn from his body. These are images Americans back home rarely experience - the gritty horror of war fought in a land half a world away.
So it was when the bomb, or IED, went off about 30 yards from Combat Outpost Nolen in the Arghandab Valley, home to troops of the 101st Airborne Division. Everyone froze, expecting the worst. And it was bad. A soldier had lost his leg. It was the sixth limb lost among soldiers at the outpost in just three weeks.
The thought that the Taliban could sneak so close to the base angered many soldiers. Thick trees and mudwalls offer plenty of cover for Taliban bombers to hide. Cut down the trees? The idea had come up. But cutting down trees might anger the locals. And winning their friendship and support is a key goal of the campaign against the Taliban.
After the blast, the scene was chaotic. Soldiers scrambled to carry the wounded comrade to a helicopter landing zone. One soldier, Pvt. James Stennett, sat on the ground, dazed after being hit by a bomb fragment. Several soldiers screamed at photographers not to take pictures of the scene .
Soon a medevac helicopter arrived and flew the soldier who'd lost his leg to a military hospital. The men had a chance to decompress. A young officer walked over to apologize for screaming at us. The sun was boiling. And tensions were high. The American people need to see the reality that soldiers at Combat Outpost Nolen must endure every day, he says.
Editor’s Note: Pvt. James Stennett gave his permission to the Associated Press to have his name and image published. The second wounded soldier has not. Under standard rules for journalists embedded with combat units, the identity of wounded military personnel may not be published without their permission.
E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS