Over Afghanistan, Jan. 6, 2015: Afghan National Army soldiers rest in the back of an Mi-17 helicopter after being evacuated from a remote outpost in southern Afghanistan. As coalition air support has dwindled to almost nothing, the few Afghan Air Force helicopters are in high demand.

On Jan.1, 2015 the NATO-led coalition transitioned to a mission focused more on advising and training than combat operations, but for hundreds of thousands of Afghan security forces and their remaining foreign advisers, the fighting is far from over.

While embedded with the Afghan soldiers and air crews continuing that fight across what was once the Taliban heartland, Stars and Stripes gained an exclusive look at what the war looks like after the withdrawal of most international forces.

Read the story here.