Afghan President Hamid Karzai spent last weekend in Qatar, speaking with Qatari officials about mediating possible talks with Taliban officials as the 2014 deadline for NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan approaches. Australia announced it will withdraw most troops by the end of this year, closing down at least one major NATO base. Two newly appointed U.S. officials -- Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry -- paid visits to the country last month, making efforts to shore up relations with Karzai, who has been stepping up his criticism of the U.S. and NATO. The photos below are just a glimpse of this conflict over the past month, part of the ongoing series here onAfghanistan. [41 photos]
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An Afghan soldier walks by a damaged bus being pulled by a crane following a suicide attack in Kabul, on February 27, 2013. A man wearing a black overcoat and carrying an umbrella as a shelter against the heavy snow crossed a street in the Afghan capital early Wednesday morning toward an idling bus filled with Afghan soldiers, where he laid down and wiggled underneath. Then he exploded, engulfing the undercarriage of the bus in flames. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq) # 
A wounded Afghan boy receives treatment at a hospital in Kunar province on February 13, 2013. A NATO air strike killed 10 civilians, mostly women and children, in a raid on a Taliban hideout in a remote region of eastern Afghanistan, local officials said. "Five children, four women and a man were killed in the raid," Kunar provincial governor, Sayed Fazulullah Wahidi, told AFP.(Namatullah Karyab/AFP/Getty Images) #
An Afghan woman carries water at the Band-e Amir lake on the outskirts of Bamiyan city, on March 2, 2013. Bamiyan, some 200 kilometers (124 miles) northwest of Kabul, stands in a deep green and lush valley stretching 100 kilometers through central Afghanistan, on the former Silk Road that once linked China with Central Asia and beyond. (Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images) #
Afghan Scouts salute coalition and other volunteers at the closing ceremony of Afghan Scouts' Travel Safety Training Day held at Marastoon orphanage, on March 29, 2013. The event was centered on teaching travel safety training, an event supported by coalition members volunteering to run booths for a round robin of skill training. (USAF/Tech. Sgt. Joseph Prouse) #
Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles wait in a staging area for onward movement at an undisclosed base in Southwest Asia, on March 20, 2013. The joint team of Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Central Command's DDOC will play a major role in moving the more than 50,000 Coalition military vehicles from Afghanistan that will need to be recovered or re-positioned abroad.(USAF/Senior Master Sgt. George Thompson) #
Afghan men walk through the debris of their destroyed school in the village of Budyali, Nangarhar province, on March 19, 2013. Taliban militants attacked the nearby district headquarters in July 2011, then took refuge in the school. The Afghan National Army requested help from coalition forces, who responded with drones, fighter jets and rockets, leaving the school destroyed, according to village elders.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #
Children wait for their relatives to arrive home as soldiers from Headquarters Company 1st Battalion The Scots Guards return to their base at Bourlon Barracks and are reunited with their families following their recent deployment to Afghanistan on February 27, 2013 in Catterick, England. (Ian Forsyth/Getty Images) #
A model presents an Afghan traditional dress at a fashion show, launched by Young Women for Change (YWC), in Kabul, on February 8, 2013. The YWC organization is made up of volunteers across Afghanistan, who organize events to help empower Afghan women and improve their lives through social and economical participation. The creations at the fashion show are designed by Afghan women.(Reuters/Omar Sobhani) #
Afghan Hazara men transport skis on a donkey prior to the Afghan Ski Challenge in the Shahidan Valley of Bamiyan province, on March 1, 2013. Afghanistan has suffered decades of conflict but an annual ski race in the Hindu Kush offers one glimpse of a different future. Held in the mountains of the Hindu Kush about 180 kilometers (110 miles) west of Kabul, the "Afghan Ski Challenge" pits local and foreign competitors against each other in a grueling test of physical fitness. (Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images) #
A Hungarian army soldier holds his son as the last unit of the Hungarian Provincial Reconstruction Team deployed in Afghanistan returns home at Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport in Budapest, Hungary, on March 28, 2013 after the Hungarian PRT of NATO forces finished its mission in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/MTI, Tamas Kovacs) #
An Afghan Security officer stands over the dead body of a suspected suicide bomber in Kabul, on February 24, 2013. Afghan intelligence officers shot dead at least one would-be suicide bomber in Kabul's most well-protected area home to some of the country's most high-profile targets, Kabul police said. (Reuters/Omar Sobhani) #
Tracy Dice Johnson holds a flag from a "widow's box" that platoon mates of her wife prepared during a service they had for their fallen comrade, on March 20, 2013, in Raeford, North Carolina. When her wife was killed in Afghanistan last year, the North Carolina National Guardswoman heard about it from her sister-in-law. Although Sgt. Donna Johnson had listed Dice as her next-of-kin, Army casualty officers informed Johnson's mother of her death first because of a federal law that prohibits the U.S. government from recognizing same-sex unions. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) #
Mohammed Isaq weeps as he tells the story of his nephew's arrest by U.S Special Forces in Maidan Shahr, Wardak province, on March 10, 2013. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, infuriated by villager reports of forced detentions and mass arrests, gave U.S. Special Forces two weeks to vacate Wardak province, located barely 30 kilometers (24 miles) from the Afghan capital of Kabul.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #
Women in the Afghan Uniform Police (AUP) take cover while practicing a high-risk traffic stop during their training on Combat Outpost Matun Hill, Khost province, on February 25, 2013. The day's training taught the AUP how to safely conduct a traffic stop and search a vehicle. (US Army/Sgt. Kimberly Trumbull) #
Afghan men chant "U.S. special operations forces out!" as several hundred demonstrators march to the Afghan parliament building to protest against the continued presence of U.S. commandos in Afghanistan's troubled Wardak province, on March 16, 2013. The demonstrators were demanding the release of nine local citizens they believe were detained by the U.S. forces.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) #
Clinton Romesha, a former active duty Army Staff Sergeant, after he was presented with the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry by U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House, on February 11, 2013 in Washington, D.C. Romesha received the Medal of Honor for actions during combat operations against an armed enemy at Combat Outpost Keating, Nuristan Province, Afghanistan, on October 3, 2009. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) #
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