AFP - Getty Images

Taliban militia fighters at a cemetery near the site where a CH-47 Chinook helicopter carrying US troops crashed killing 38 personnel including 30 US soldiers, in the remote Tangi Valley in Wardak province, Afghanistan, on August 10.

Photographs of active Taliban fighters are rare - understandably so due to the danger the militia poses to journalists, both foreign and local.

The picture above was made available by Agence France Presse (AFP) through Getty Images late on Wednesday. It shows Taliban militia in the remote Tangi Valley, near the site where a U.S. Chinook helicopter was downed a few days earlier with the loss of 38 lives. I asked for more information on the photo, and AFP's local bureau helpfully supplied a few more details:

As usual we ran through a series of our own checks to determine the source of this photograph - having satisfied ourselves it was from a legitimate source we released the photograph.

I cannot tell you the photographer's identity for his own security or what the men were doing in the cemetery, or whether they are directly related to the Chinook incident.

The top American commander in Afghanistan, Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, said on Wednesday that an airstrike by international forces had killed the Taliban insurgents responsible for the downing of the helicopter, the AP reported.

Related content:

• Slideshow - Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads
• Story - Family, friends remember fallen troops as heroes
• Video - US airstrike kills fighters who shot down Chinook:

The AP reports:

A suicide bomber blew up his car outside a small residential hotel frequented by foreigners just after dawn Tuesday, killing four guards, as two other militants stormed the hotel in Kunduz city and engaged the Afghan police in a two-hour gunbattle. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault — the latest in a rising number of attacks in northern Afghanistan.

Wahdat Afghan / Reuters

Police fight suicide attackers who took over a guesthouse in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on August 2. Three suicide bombers raided a guesthouse frequented by foreigners on Tuesday, killing four Afghan security guards employed by a German company, a senior police detective said. One attacker detonated a car bomb at the gates of the guesthouse. The other two stormed the building where they fought Afghan forces for a couple of hours before detonating their explosives, said Kunduz police detective Abdul Rahman.

Ahmed Bilal / AP

Police officers wrap the body of a hotel guard in a black cloth after a suicide attack in Kunduz on August 2.

Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images

Wreckage of a P-3C Orion aircraft is seen at a major Pakistani naval air base following an attack by militants in Karachi on May 23. Taliban gunmen armed with rockets and explosives stormed a major naval air base in the heart of Pakistan's biggest city, destroying two US-made surveillance aircraft and killing 12 personnel.

Athar Hussain / Reuters

Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik speaks to the media outside Mehran naval aviation base, which was attacked by militants, in Karachi on May 23.

KARACHI, Pakistan — Islamist militants stormed a naval base in the Pakistani city of Karachi late Sunday, destroying a U.S.-supplied surveillance aircraft, firing rockets and battling commandos sent to subdue them in one of the most brazen attacks in years, officials said.

At least four navy personnel were killed and nine wounded in fighting at the Naval Station Mehran, said navy spokesman Irfan ul Haq. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack as fighting was still reportedly going on Monday morning, saying it was part of their revenge for the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Continue reading.

View an earlier PhotoBlog post on the attack.