Soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division pack electronics at Camp Mike Spann, near Mazar-e-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan. Coalition forces turned over the base, part of a larger training center, to Afghan control at a ceremony Sunday, April 27, 2014. Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes (Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes)

A man looks out a shop window shattered by an attack on a bus carrying Afghan National Army staff. The Jan. 26, 2014, bombing in Kabul killed two ANA employees and two civilians, and wounded at least 22 other people in a busy shopping area along a major road. Civilians are being killed and injured in record numbers in Afghanistan, according to the latest tally by the United Nations. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

Men hold early-morning prayers at a mosque in central Kabul, Afghanistan. (Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes)

Pigeons outside the Shah-e Doshamshera Mosque, on the banks of the Kabul River, one of the capital's few remaining historic buildings. (Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes)

Children play video games at an arcade in Kabul's Gulbahar Center mall. (Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes)

Young men walk the grounds of Darulaman Palace in west Kabul. (Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes)

Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah greets supporters at a rally in Panjshir province. While he has faced accusations of playing up ethnic divides, Abdullah says ethnicity is fading as an issue in Afghan politics. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah displays his ink-stained finger before voting on April 5, 2014. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

Kabul resident Gul Mohammed displays his voter registration card before voting at a mosque in Kabul during the national elections on April 5, 2014. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

Election observers sit in their designated area at a polling station in a girls school in downtown Kabul during the second round of voting in the presidential election. Independent election monitoring organizations, as well as individual campaigns sent observers to many polling locations. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

Afghan soldiers conduct an exercise in the last remaining Soviet-era tanks in the Afghan army. Despite their age, the tanks are deployed in small numbers against Taliban insurgents. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

Supporters of Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah stomp on a picture of current President Hamid Karzai before a rally in Kabul on July 8, 2014. Abdullah accused Karzai of conspiring with other officials to rig the election. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

Supporters of Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah wipe away tears while listening to their candidate speak during a rally in Kabul on July 8, 2014. Abdullah vowed he would not accept the election's results because he believed them to be fraudulent. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

Afghan policemen take up positions in a building during a firefight with Taliban insurgents on July 17, 2014. The attackers were firing on Kabul's airport before being killed by security forces. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

A member of the Afghan police Crisis Response Unit leaves the scene of a firefight between government security forces and Taliban insurgents near Kabul airport on July 17, 2014. Elite Afghan police and army units responded to the attack. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

An Afghan policeman leaves the building where four Taliban militants lay dead after a firefight near Kabul's airport on July 17, 2014. International military officials say Afghan forces in Kabul have become adept at reacting to such attacks. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

An Afghan boy joins the crowd salvaging scraps from the remains of a truck bomb used by the Taliban to launch an attack near the Kabul airport on July 17, 2014. Afghan security officers gave up trying to preserve the scene after being confronted by the crowd. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

U.S. soldiers with "Dragon Platoon," 2nd Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment establish fighting positions Sept. 13, 2014, at a Logar province combat outpost the Americans had turned over to the Afghan National Army in 2011. (Jad Sleiman/Stars and Stripes)

Wooden B huts sit abandoned at Bagram Air Field as engineers strip the buildings before crushing and removing them. While such structures are meant to be temporary, many were used for years at Bagram. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

Mohammed Wazir sits at a compound in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, Afghanistan, on Sept. 23, 2014. Mohammed stepped on an improvised bomb left in his family's home by insurgents during fighting over the summer. He says he wants to become a doctor to help people the way he has been helped. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

Afghan policemen conduct a patrol in Helmand province on Sept. 23, 2014. Afghan security forces sustained heavy casualties during fierce fighting in the province over the summer. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

An Afghan policeman rides in the back of a truck during a patrol in Helmand province on Sept. 23, 2014. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

Men sit in the entrance of the Shrine of the Cloak in Kandahar, Afghanistan, which is said to house a cloak once worn by Islam's prophet, Muhammad. As his group seized power in 1996, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar took the cloak out of the building and wore it in public to legitimize himself as the country's new leader. (Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes)

A man holds a candle during a Muharram ceremony at a mosque in Kabul on Nov. 3, 2014. The Day of Ashura was commemorated across the city with gatherings, processions and banners. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

Afghan Shiite men flagellate themselves at a Muharram ceremony on the Day of Ashura in Kabul on Nov. 3, 2014. The practice of self-flagellation has become more controversial, with some religious leaders urging believers to donate blood instead. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

An Afghan National Army soldier fires a 122mm howitzer at Taliban positions during a clearing operation in Laghman province, Nov. 4, 2014. Security forces are struggling to make decisive gains in an insurgency that shows no signs of fading. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

An Afghan National Army soldier prepares to board an armored Humvee after a clearing operation in Laghman province Nov. 4, 2014. The army provided backup for police units who engaged in firefights with insurgents. (Josh Smith/Stars and Stripes)

Capt. Nicole White stands at attention during the closing ceremonies for ISAF Joint Command on Dec. 8, 2014. (Carlo Munoz/Stars and Stripes)