Stunning Pictures Of Afghanistan Like You've Never Seen It Before

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Clik here to view.With today's deadly attack on American forces and the fatal downing of an Black Hawk helicopter, the nation again looks to Afghanistan and the troop withdrawal in 2014.

It's been a long 11 years, and the idea that we know anything more about the country where our military's fighting is as false as it is frustrating.

With that in mind, we look back at these pictures posted earlier in the year.

Peretz Partensky spent four months taking them while working as part of the Synergy Strike Force in Jalalabad, Afghanistan and wrote about his adventures on jalalagood.com.

As an independent contractor, Partensky traveled freely around Afghanistan with credentials that allowed him access to U.S. Army bases, but he also "had the local garb and faithful friends" to guide him around the interior of the country.

Partensky agreed to share snapshots of his life in Afghanistan with Business Insider and if nothing else, they're a reminder that Afghanistan is almost impossible to define.

No weapons are allowed in the hospital, but many places have lockers where you can check them in

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Kids become comfortable with guns at an early age — here they are with Afghan soldiers, who are guarding a populated intersection in Mazar-i-Sharif during the Persian New Year

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During Nowruz, the Persian New Year, soldiers patrolled and slept on the rooftops in the center of Mazar-i-Sharif

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