2017

Livestock herders manoeuvre their flocks into the rising sun at the weekly livestock bazaar in Bolan. Helmand Province, July, 2017.

As a violent storm hits, children of Sharguftar return to their simple house in Surkh Rod District, which they've lived in since fleeing their home in Pachir Wa Agam after their father, Mohammad Karim, a chef working for the Afghan government, was killed by fighters from the so-called Islamic State Khorasan Province one year ago. Nangarhar Province, July, 2017.

Yamin (pseudonym), a local Taliban fighter and bodyguard of a commander who went by the name of Mullah Abdul Saeed and says he is responsible for 150 men in nearby Charkh District, checks out the window before departing a house on the edge of a village southeast of Pul-i Alam, between the Taliban strongholds of Baraki Barak and Charkh. Logar Province, October, 2017.

Kamran, who was undergoing medical treatment in Pakistan, rides with friends of his family, including Mariwa, who left their adopted home in Pakistan where they'd lived as undocumented refugees for 30 years before recent harassment from Pakistani authorities forced them to return to Afghanistan. Kamran was to be dropped off with his family in Kabul on the way north to Baghlan. Nangarhar Province, July, 2017.

Samim Sediqi and Iqbal hang out on a boulder, enjoying the sunset above the Khwaja Rawash apartment complex, where they have been residents for two and a half years. Kabul, September, 2017.

In the dry Kabul River-bed, near the famous addict hub of Pul-i Sorkhta, or Burnt Bridge, plain clothed police destroy the makeshift shelters of addicts, including one belonging to a woman and another to an amputee addict. Kabul, May, 2017.

A little over an hour from the Afghan capital Kabul, in the province of Logar, which is heavily contested by Government and Taliban forces, students from a private school in Muhammad Agha District sing the Afghan national anthem during assembly. Logar Province, April, 2017.

Dozens of drug addicts smoke opium and crystal methamphetamine, soon after sunrise, in a small, abandoned store-front behind the main traffic circle in Zaranj, in Afghanistan's southwest. The majority of addicts said they had become addicted in Iran before being deported back to Afghanistan. Nimroz Province, August, 2017.

The Koh-i Top lookout where, once upon a time, canons were used to announce the start of lunchtime in Kabul. Kabul, May, 2017.

Afghan police, security contractors and passers-by at the crater caused by a truck bomb that was detonated at 8:30AM, near several embassies, the presidential palace, the international 'Resolute Support' military mission headquarters as well as an Afghan telecommunications company, Roshan. 150 were killed and nearly 500 injured in the blast. In a statement, the Taliban insurgent group denied responsibility for the attack. The Afghan intelligence service believed the Haqqani Network, a Taliban affiliate, to be responsible. Kabul, May, 2017.

The remains of a fighter from the so-called Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) killed in an airstrike in Achin District's Mohmand Valley, only a couple of hundred metres from where, in April, 2017, an American military cargo plane dropped a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, the so-called Mother of all Bombs (MOAB), the largest non-nuclear weapon deployed in combat, on a tunnel complex at the entrance to Mohmand Valley, which the US said was being used as a hideout by ISKP fighters. Afghan Local Police in the area said the airstrike that is believed to have killed this fighter came after the MOAB was dropped. Nangarhar Province, July, 2017.

An victim is stretchered to an ambulance near the site of a truck bomb that killed 150 and wounded nearly 500. Kabul, May, 2017.

Recently admitted patients in a detoxification room at the 500-bed Sardiq Nazari Shelter for drug addicts in Zaranj, in Afghanistan's southwest. A doctor at the shelter said approximately 70% of his patients are returnees from Iran, where many Afghans develop drug addictions. Nimroz Province, August, 2017.

At the Helmand Drug Addict's Treatment Center in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, patients undergo a 45 day treatment program. Most are addicted to opium, heroin or another derivative of poppy known as crystal, which is smoked. Many have relapsed several times and acquired their habits after treating minor pains or illness' with opium, unaware of the risk of addiction, especially in less well-educated rural areas such as Helmand. Helmand Province, July, 2017.

A Taliban flag flies over a grave in a cemetery where Afghan soldiers are also buried, in Maughulkhil area of Muhammad Agha District. Logar Province, April, 2017.

Inside the blood splattered Imam Zamam Grand Mosque the morning after a suicide bomber detonated explosives during Friday prayers. The mosque is located in the heart of Kabul's Shia Hazara community. Around 50 were reportedly killed and scores more injured. It is just one in a spate of similar attacks claimed by the so-called Islamic State Khorasan Province targeting Shia Muslims. Kabul, October, 2017.

President Ashraf Ghani stands at his desk, which originally belonged to Afghanistan's leader of the early 20th century, Amanullah Khan, and which Ghani had restored when he came to office, in the Golkhana building in the presidential palace, or Arg as it is known. Golkhana was built in 1915 as a 'winter palace' by Amir Habibullah. Kabul, May, 2017.

In the back of a pick-up truck driven by a smuggler, or rabalat (guide), a dozen Afghans, as well as those in the cabin, begin the second leg of their journey (the first being from their home provinces to Zaranj) as undocumented migrants, from the southern outskirts of Zaranj in Afghanistan's southwest, to their next destination, the border with Pakistan, where they'll be collected by another smuggler for the next leg, to Iran. Nimroz Province, August, 2017.