FRIDAY FOTO (August 9, 2019)

Star Guard.

(U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sergeant Keifer Bowes)

An airman guards a C-130J Super Hercules  transport aircraft during cargo loading and unloading operations in Afghanistan, on August 3, 2019.

Nearly 18 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks led to U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, the war torn country remains a very dangerous place. In late July, two U.S. soldiers were killed in Uruzgan province in what officials have described as an “insider” attack by an Afghan soldier. Fourteen U.S. troops have died this year from injuries sustained in the conflict, according to the Washington Post. The Post noted  nearly 2,400 American troops have died in the country since the war began and more than 20,000 have been wounded, according to the Pentagon.