Afghanistan On The Brink

Armed supporters of former mujahedin commander Ismail Khan guard his residence on July 9. Khan and his followers have vowed to fight alongside Afghan security forces against the Taliban as the militants advance into the western Herat Province. 

Ismail Khan (on telephone), a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s, with supporters as he prepares to defend the area against the Taliban advance on July 9. Khan survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban in 2009. 

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen after a news conference in Moscow on July 9. The militant Islamist group says it controls some 85 percent of Afghanistan -- a claim that is difficult to confirm. 

Women carry automatic weapons as they march in opposition to the Taliban in the central-western Ghor Province on July 6.

An Afghan soldier watches from a checkpoint in Laghman Province on July 8 after Afghanistan's security forces reportedly cleared the area of Taliban militants. 

 

A Humvee with the body of a dead Taliban fighter on its hood on July 7 after fighting around the northern city of Kunduz. 

Civilians flee from the Alishang district of Laghman Province as Afghan security forces battled the Taliban on July 8.

Vehicles left behind by U.S. forces at Bagram Airfield, some 50 kilometers north of the capital, Kabul. The base was hastily vacated on July 2 and is currently under the control of the Afghan military. 

An Afghan soldier looks through items left by the U.S. military at Bagram Airfield on July 5. 

A serviceman from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization looks over the border area between Tajikistan and Afghanistan on July 5. Tajikistan has seen a surge of refugees fleeing across the border amid the recent Taliban advances. 

Tents in Korog, Tajikistan, filled with refugees who fled the fighting in northern Afghanistan. 

An internally displaced Afghan family who fled their home ahead of fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces in the Enjil district of Herat on July 8. 

Three Afghans rest next to a highway near the eastern Turkish city of Bitlis on June 2. They travelled west from Afghanistan through Iran as fighting in their home country escalated.

An Afghan National Army soldier stands guard at an isolated checkpoint on the highway between Jalalabad and Kabul on July 8. 

Afghan security forces patrol the Alishang district of Laghman Province after reportedly clearing the area of Taliban fighters on July 8. 

Armed citizens in Ghor Province march in opposition to the Taliban on July 6.