Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Men peer through the former window of a destroyed school in the village of Budyali, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, 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.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Ahmed Shah, 12, center, recalls the attack on his village in the yard of a house where he and his family found refuge in the village of Khalis, Nangarhar province, on March 20, 2013.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Ghulam Rasool sits in the yard of his house in Khalis on March 20, 2013.

Barely able to walk even with a cane, Ghulam Rasool says he padlocked his front door, handed over the keys and his three cows to a neighbor and fled his mountain home in the middle of the night to escape relentless airstrikes from U.S. drones targeting militants in a remote corner of Afghanistan.

Rasool and other Afghan villagers have their own name for Predator drones. They call them benghai, which in the Pashto language means the "buzzing of flies." When they explain the noise, they scrunch their faces and try to make a sound that resembles an army of flies.

"They are evil things that fly so high you don't see them but all the time you hear them," said Rasool, whose body is stooped and shrunken with age and his voice barely louder than a whisper. "Night and day we hear this sound and then the bombardment starts." Read the full story.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Boys study in a makeshift school in the village of Budyali, Nangarhar province, on March 19, 2013.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Papers and schoolbooks lie among the debris of a destroyed school in the village of Budyali, Nangarhar province, on March 19, 2013.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Men walk through the debris of the destroyed school in the village of Budyali, Nangarhar province, on March 19, 2013.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Rahmat Gul / AP

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

Related:

• Drone protesters arrested at Air Force base in Nevada
• US Air Force stops reporting data on Afghanistan drone strikes
• Photos document alleged US drone strike victims in Pakistan

Dar Yasin / AP

Indian policemen take cover during a gunbattle in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, on March 13, 2013. A team of militants stormed a paramilitary camp Wednesday morning, leaving five soldiers and two militants dead, a police official said.

Dar Yasin / AP

Indian policemen and paramilitary soldiers react during a gunbattle in Srinagar on March 13, 2013.

Reuters reports — Two militants hiding automatic rifles and grenades in cricket equipment opened fire on a paramilitary camp on the Indian side of Kashmir on Wednesday, killing five Indian personnel and wounding five, police said.

The militants were killed in a gunfight at the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) base just outside the restive city of Srinagar, which has been under curfew for much of the last few weeks following protests and clashes with police.

Local media reports said that Hizbul Mujahideen, the bitterly disputed region's largest militant group, had claimed responsibility for the attack, in which three civilians were also wounded.

Police said the gunmen approached the camp by mingling with children playing cricket in a nearby field, hiding their weapons in the cricket gear they were carrying. Once at the camp, they shot a sentry dead and then fired indiscriminately into the base. Read the full story.

EPA

Indian paramilitary soldiers carry a wounded colleague on March 13, 2013.

GRAPHIC WARNING: Contains images which some viewers may find disturbing. 

SANA via AP

Syrian security agents next to a vehicle on fire following a huge explosion in Damascus on Feb. 21, 2013.

SANA via Reuters

Vehicles burn near a crater on a road after an explosion in central Damascus on Feb. 21, 2013

By The Associated Press

Syrian state TV says 53 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in a car bomb attack near the headquarters of the ruling Baath party in central Damascus.

The bomb was one of at least three attacks in the heart of the city on Thursday. A second blast shook another neighborhood and mortar rounds exploded near the Syrian Army General Command.

The Britain-based activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 42 had been killed in the car bombing, most of them civilians.

The difference in the death tolls could not be immediately reconciled. Click here for updates on this developing story.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Pictures released by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency. 

SANA via EPA

A thick black pall of smoke fills the air close to the site of a large explosion in Damascus on Feb. 21, 2013.

SANA via EPA

Wounded men sit near destroyed cars and other damage following a large explosion in Damascus on Feb. 21, 2013.

SANA via AP

Syrian security agents carrying a body following a huge explosion that shook central Damascus on Feb. 21, 2013.

SANA via EPA

Clouds of smoke swirling around destroyed cars following a large explosion in Damascus on Feb. 21, 2013.

SANA via AP

An injured man lying on the ground after a huge explosion in Damascus on Feb. 21, 2013.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

/

A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

Launch slideshow

This story was originally published on Thu Feb 21, 2013 6:25 AM EST

Aleppo Media Center via AFP - Getty Images

Syrians inspect destruction following an apparent surface-to-surface missile strike on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Feb. 19. The attack killed at least 20 people and another 25 were missing, opposition activists said on Tuesday. The missile was identified from its remains as a Scud-type rocket that government forces have increasingly used in areas under opposition control in the province of Aleppo and in the province of Deir a-Zor to the east, they said.

Hamid Khatib / Reuters

A member of the Free Syrian Army along with civilians search for survivors after a Syrian army rocket attack on the rebel-held Jabal Badro district in the city of Aleppo, on Feb. 19.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

Launch slideshow

Reuters -- A Syrian army rocket attack on a rebel-held district in the city of Aleppo killed at least 20 people and another 25 were missing, opposition activists said on Tuesday.

The missile was identified from its remains as a Scud-type rocket that government forces have increasingly used in areas under opposition control in the province of Aleppo and in the province of Deir a-Zor to the east, they said.

"The rocket brought down three adjacent buildings in Jabal Badro district. The bodies are being dug up gradually. Some, including children, have died in hospitals," Mohammad Nour said by phone from Aleppo. He said testimony from survivors indicated that 25 people were still under the rubble.

Continue reading.

Hamid Khatib / Reuters

A member of the Free Syrian Army sits near where a Syrian army rocket attack took place at the rebel-held Jabal Badro district in the city of Aleppo, on Feb. 19.

Majdi Mohammed / AP

Palestinians throw rocks during clashes with Israeli troops outside Ofer military prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday. At least 16 people were injured as Israeli forces fired into the air and used rubber bullets.

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli soldiers on Friday at a rally outside an Israeli prison in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian medical officials said two protesters were wounded by live gunfire in the demonstration, which was mounted as a show of solidarity with Palestinians being held in the nearby Ofer prison.

Mohammed Ballas / AP

Israeli security forces fire tear gas Friday north of the West Bank city of Jenin during a Palestinian rally in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails.

A crowd of about 300 Palestinians threw stones at troops, who used riot dispersal equipment to break up the protest, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.

"The soldiers, feeling immediate danger, fired in the air," she said. "The incident is being reviewed."

Palestinian medical officials said tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets were fired into the crowd, and 14 people were injured by rubber bullets.

Nearly 5,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails, many charged with involvement in attacks on Israelis.

South Korean Navy via Reuters

A South Korean navy destroyer launches a cruise missile during a drill at an undisclosed location. The country says its new missile can strike anywhere in North Korea.

SEOUL -- South Korea sent a stern warning to North Korea on Thursday, two days after the North tested a nuclear bomb, saying it could strike the isolated state if it believed an attack was imminent as it deployed a new cruise missile to drive home its point.

South Korean officials declined to say the exact range of the missile but said it could hit targets anywhere in North Korea.

The United States and its allies are pushing for new sanctions at the U.N. Security Council aimed at slowing North Korea's nuclear and long-range missile development. 

South Korean navy via Reuters

A new South Korean cruise missile hits a target during a navy drill at an undisclosed location. The Defense Ministry warned that the missile could strike targets in North Korea.

North Korea on Thursday repeated its warning that any further sanctions would provoke it into taking firmer action, and Seoul warned that it would strike if attacked. South Korea has already relaxed rules allowing troops on the border to return fire directly without seeking permission from the army chiefs. 

Japan, which has little capacity to strike at the North if threatened by an attack because of the constraints of its pacifist constitution, said it had the right to develop such capability in response to changes in the regional security situation -- but had no plan to do so at present.

"When an intention to attack Japan is evident, the threat is imminent, and there are no other options, Japan is allowed under the law to carry out strikes against enemy targets," Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said in an interview. 

South Korea's Defense Ministry released video footage of the missiles being launched from destroyers and submarines and striking mock targets. The weapon was previewed in April last year and officials said deployment was now complete.

"The cruise missile being unveiled today is a precision-guided weapon that can identify and strike the window of the office of North Korea's leadership," ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters.

North Korea has forged ahead with long-range missile development, successfully launching a rocket in December that put a satellite into orbit.

The North's ultimate aim, Washington believes, is to design an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that could hit the United States.

North Korea, technically still at war with the South after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, carried out its third nuclear test on Tuesday, drawing condemnation from around the world, including its only major ally, China.

The test and the threat of more unspecified actions from Pyongyang have raised tensions on the Korean peninsula as the South prepares to inaugurate a new president on Feb. 25.

"The situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula at present is so serious that even a slight accidental case may lead to an all-out war which can disturb the whole region," North Korea's official KCNA news agency said.

Related: 

China speaks softly to avoid alienating nuclear-armed neighbor

White House: North Korea nuclear test 'highly provocative'

North Korea propaganda video shows US city in flames

GRAPHIC WARNING: Contains images which some viewers may find disturbing.

Musadeq Sadeq / AP

A victim is transported to a hospital following a militant attack in Kabul, on Jan. 16.

S. Sabawoon / EPA

Afghan security officials inspect the scene of a suicide bomb attack that was targeting the office of the Afghan intelligence agency in Kabul on Jan. 16.

By Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi, Reuters

Six suicide bombers launched a coordinated attack on Afghanistan's spy agency in Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least two and wounding 22 others, Afghan officials said.

The attack started at around noon (0730 GMT) when the first assailant detonated a large car bomb near the entrance to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Kabul police chief's office said in a statement.

Five others strapped with explosives and driving a minivan were shot dead as they tried to enter the NDS compound, it said. Two NDS guards were killed by the first bomber and 22 others wounded, security and health officials said. Continue reading.

Shah Marai / AFP - Getty Images

An Afghan woman with her child move to safety as security personnel secure the site of a suicide attack near the Afghan intelligence agency headquarters in Kabul on Jan. 16.

Shah Marai / AFP - Getty Images

A truck driver peers through the broken windshield of his vehicle at the site of a suicide attack near the Afghan intelligence agency headquarters in Kabul on Jan. 16.

Ahmad Jamshid / AP

Security men with the Afghan intelligence services talk on their cell phones at the scene of a bombing in Kabul on Jan. 16.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Aref Karimi / AFP - Getty Images

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• White House releases photo from President Obama's 2012 visit to Kabul, Afghanistan
• Children wait for winter aid in Afghanistan
• Snow, extreme weather threaten 2 million Afghans
• Fire sweeps through Kabul cloth market
• Afghan refugees prepare for another winter

Majdi Mohammed / AP

Surrounded by Israeli border police, Jewish settlers from the Esh Kodesh settlement outpost sit in a field in an attempt to prevent Palestinians from farming land in the northern West Bank, on Jan. 2. Both the settlers and Palestinians living in the area claim ownership of the disputed land.

Reports state that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insists that talks cannot proceed without a construction freeze on Israeli West Bank settlements, a precondition that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects.

-- The Associated Press, European Pressphoto Agency

Alaa Badarneh / EPA

An Israeli soldier runs to stop a Jewish settler as she tries to prevent a Palestinian farmer from ploughing his fields near the West Bank village of Jaloud on Jan. 2.

Alaa Badarneh / EPA

Israeli soldiers prepare to remove a Jewish settler as she tries to stop a Palestinian farmer from ploughing his fields near the West Bank village of Jaloud near Nablus on Jan. 2.

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• Palestinians rally, celebrate as UN upgrades their status
• Palestinians clash with Israeli soldiers over prisoners
• Israel authorizes additional permits for Palestinian workers
• West Bank cities erupt in violent protests over escalating prices
• Jewish settlers voluntarily evacuate West Bank enclave

Muzaffar Salman / Reuters

A girl looks up to the sky after hearing the sound of shelling as she sits on a toy pony in the playground of Al-Tawheed school in Aleppo, Syria on Jan. 1.

Muzaffar Salman / Reuters

Children play in the playground of Al-Tawheed school in Aleppo on Jan. 1.

Muzaffar Salman / Reuters

Children play with a toy car in the playground of Al-Tawheed school in Aleppo on Jan. 1.

Muzaffar Salman / Reuters

Children sit on school benches at Al-Tawheed school in Aleppo on Jan. 1.

Muzaffar Salman / Reuters

Children attend a class at Al-Tawheed school in Aleppo on Jan. 1.

By Oliver Holmes, Reuters

Government war planes bombed opposition-held areas of Syria and President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels fought on the outskirts of the capital Damascus on New Year's Day on Tuesday.

A year ago, many diplomats and analysts predicted Assad would leave power in 2012. But despite international pressure and rebel gains, he has proved resilient.

The air force pounded Damascus's eastern suburbs on Tuesday and rebel-held areas of Aleppo, the second city and commercial capital, as well as several rural towns and villages, opposition activists said.

Related links:

• See more images of the conflict in Syria in PhotoBlog
• Syrian government forces go on attack on first day of year
• Reuters cameraman wounded by Syrian sniper

Slideshow: Syria uprising

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country

Launch slideshow

Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters

Ayman al-Sahili, a Reuters cameraman, receives first aid after he was shot in the leg by a sniper loyal to Syrian President Bashar el-Assad while filming on the front line in Syria's north city of Aleppo on Dec. 31.

By Reuters

A Reuters television cameraman was shot in the leg and wounded while filming on the front line in Syria's northern city of Aleppo on Monday.

Ayman al-Sahili, a Libyan citizen working as part of a Reuters multi-media reporting team, was hit by a rifle bullet fired from a distance. He was treated in Syria and then driven across the border to Turkey. His injury was not life-threatening.

The ambulance transporting Sahili to Turkey encountered an air strike in Aleppo and maneuvered into an alley until it was safe to continue the journey.

Syria was by far the most dangerous country for journalists in 2012, with 28 killed there during the year according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a watchdog group. Read the full story.

Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters

Ayman al-Sahili is carried on a stretcher after he was wounded by a sniper loyal to Syrian President Bashar el-Assad in Syria's north city of Aleppo on Dec. 31.

Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters

Ayman al-Sahili is carried away in Syria's north city of Aleppo on Dec. 31.

Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters

A Free Syrian Army fighter pulls a boy off the street as a sniper fires during fighting with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar el-Assad in Aleppo city on Dec. 31.

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• Israeli airstrike hits media building in Gaza, killing leading militant
• Photographers join together to raise money for a fallen colleague
• Three photojournalists killed as Mexico drug cartels target media
• Colleagues mourn TV cameraman shot dead on Lebanon-Syria border
• The work of photographer Remi Ochlik, killed in Syria
• Attacks in Syria kill several, including French journalist

Slideshow: Syria uprising

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country

Launch slideshow

Athar Hussain / Reuters

Family members of Nasima Bibi, a female worker of an anti-polio drive campaign who was shot by gunmen, mourn at a hospital morgue in Karachi on Dec. 18.

Rehan Khan / EPA

A rescue worker ties the feet of one of the Polio vaccination workers at a mortuary.

Reuters -- Gunmen shot five health workers on an anti-polio drive in a string of attacks in Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said, raising fears for the safety of workers immunizing children against the crippling disease.

It was not clear who was behind the shootings, but Taliban insurgents have repeatedly denounced the anti-polio campaign as a Western plot.

Health officials suspended the immunization campaign in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city of 18 million people. Continue reading.

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• Demonstrators get fired up at the chance to make their 'voices count' on Human Rights Day
• Pakistan's lone beer maker seeks overseas business
• Pakistani girls endeavor for education

Rizwan Tabassum / AFP - Getty Images

A Pakistani mother mourns over her daughter, who was killed while on the job as a polio vaccination worker, at a hospital morgue following an attack by gunmen in Karachi on Dec. 18. Gunmen on motorbikes shot dead five female Pakistani polio vaccination workers on Tuesday, police said, highlighting resistance to the country's immunization campaign. Four were killed in three different incidents in the sprawling port city and the fifth in the northwestern city of Peshawar, on the second day of a nationwide three-day drive against the disease, which is endemic in Pakistan.

Fareed Khan / AP

Pakistani rescue workers carry the dead body of a female polio worker, killed by unknown gunmen, at the morgue of local hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, on Dec. 18. Gunmen killed several people working on a government polio vaccination campaign in two different Pakistani cities on Tuesday, officials said. The attacks were likely an attempt by the Taliban to counter an initiative the militant group has long opposed.

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

Launch slideshow

NBC News producer Ghazi Balkiz is traveling in northern Syria with NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel. He took these photographs in Aleppo within the past week.

Ghazi Balkiz / NBC News

Rebels in Aleppo's old city sit 20 yards from Syrian army troops. The fighting in these narrow streets and alleys has reached a stalemate with neither side advancing or retreating. Rebels at this location told NBC News that they were so close to the enemy that they sometimes talk with the Syrian army soldiers.

Ghazi Balkiz / NBC News

Aleppo's Dar Al-Shifa hospital stands in ruins next to the rubble of a building that used to be next to it. Members of the Free Syrian Army told NBC News that the hospital was targeted because it was treating anti-Assad forces. 

Rebels prevented NBC News from filming the outside of all functioning hospitals in the city because, they said, the government would use the images to target the buildings. They allowed NBC News to film Dar Al-Shifa because the hospital was no longer being used.

Ghazi Balkiz / NBC News

A nurse treats a Free Syrian Army fighter who had been shot by a sniper. The nurse uses a head torch because there is no electricity in the hospital. NBC News saw many wounded people being turned away from this hospital and sent to other clinics.

A doctor told NBC that the hospital was running low on all sorts of medicines, and had even performed an amputation without anesthetic.

Ghazi Balkiz / NBC News

A crater scars the yard outside a bombed school in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and commercial center. Some residents told NBC News that the school was targeted by President Bashar Assad’s forces in an effort to destroy all aspects of normal life and force people to turn against the rebels. Other residents said that the Syrian army bombed it because the rebels had taken shelter in it.

During past visits to Syria, NBC News saw evidence that the Syrian army was taking over schools and using them as temporary bases. 

Ghazi Balkiz / NBC News

A textbook with a picture of former Syrian President Hafez Assad, father of current President Bashar Assad, sits on the ground amid garbage and other debris in the schoolyard of the bombed school.

Ghazi Balkiz / NBC News

A doorway stands in Aleppo’s Old City, classified as a world heritage site by UNESCO. The ancient walls and alleyways of the city, once renowned as a tourist attraction, are now riddled with bullet holes. 

Related content:

• Syrian army defector: 'Violence has become part of my children's lives'
• Obama says US recognizes Syrian opposition coalition
• Who are the Syrian rebels?
• Slideshow: Behind Syrian rebel lines
• More photos from Syria on PhotoBlog
• Slideshow: Syria uprising

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