Pakistani militants are held in a makeshift prison after being captured for illegally entering Afghanistan. The Afghan authorities later released them on a Ramadan amnesty. December 2001.

General Khatol Muhammadzai, Afghanistan'€™s first female parachutist, was the highest-ranking woman in Afghanistan'€™s air force at the time the Taliban forced her to stay at home with a severance pay of $13 a month.

Afghan women prepare backstage to perform Shakespeare in Kabul for the first time since 1979.

An Afghan woman in Nangahar province harvests opium in a poppy field.

The nomadic Kuchi people seek refuge in the ruins of Darulaman Palace (Abode of Peace) in Kabul after violent ethnic disputes with the Hazaras.

Afghans play football outside the ruins of Darulaman Palace (Abode of Peace), built by King Amanullah Khan in the 1920s and later destroyed in the Afghan-Soviet and civil wars.

An estimated 135 people were killed in a car bombing at the Tomb of Imam Ali in Najaf. The attack targeted a prominent Shi’ite cleric and occurred as the faithful were leaving after Friday prayers.

In keeping with Iraqi tradition, a shopkeeper marked his generator in the blood of a slaughtered sheep, petitioning Allah for continued protection after witnessing a family be shot to death by U.S. forces next to his shop.

Throughout the 2006 Lebanon War the Lebanese military were ordered not to fight.

Women dance on a bar top competing for the title of sexiest woman at a club party in Beirut.

Hezbollah supporters sleep in the street after a day of violent protest in which they demanded greater representation in the government.

After fighting broke out between extremist group Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese Army in May 2007, the Lebanese military carried out an offensive that lasted for nearly four months. A man watches the the shelling of Nahr al-Bared camp from his rooftop. The majority of the 30,000 Palestinians who live in the refugee camp were forced to flee to other camps.

A child walks through the wreckage left behind after the Israeli air strikes which destroyed thousands of apartments and drove ten of thousands of civilians from their homes in the southern suburbs of Beirut. The Israelis used satellite-guided bombs called bunker busters to penetrate up to 22 feet of concrete in an attempt to assassinate Hassan Nasurallah, the leader of Hezbollah. The United States supported these efforts by expediting the shipment of approximately 100 bunker buster bombs to Israel during its recent war on Lebanon. Most bunker buster bombs utilize ultra-dense depleted uranium to achieve the greatest momentum.

Anti-Mubarak demonstrators gather in Tahrir Square for Friday prayers.

A wounded anti-Mubarak demonstrator lies on the ground in Tahrir Square.