In Pictures

The Afghans on the frontlines fighting the Taliban

We meet the last defenders of the city of Lashkar Gah, considered the gateway to the rest of the country.

A police officer is on patrol on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, where Afghan forces are trying to fend off the Taliban. [Steve Chao/Al Jazeera]

30 Jan 2017

Fifteen years after suffering defeat at the hands of the United States, the Taliban are rapidly retaking territory in Afghanistan. Wide swaths of the country are now under their control.

But the prize for the armed group is the city of Lashkar Gah, considered the gateway to the rest of the country.

Al Jazeera’s Steve Chao travelled to the frontline to meet the last defenders of this vital city.

He found a ragtag group of Afghan soldiers and police, poorly trained and short on supplies, but full of determination to take on the Taliban in fierce firefights.

Chao also documents the true cost of war at a busy emergency hospital, where he meets patients injured in the long-running conflict.

Watch the full documentary here: Afghanistan: Taliban at the Gate.

An Afghan border police officer looks through a peephole, scanning for Taliban snipers hidden just a few compounds away on the edge of Lashkar Gah. [Steve Chao/Al Jazeera]

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An Afghan border police officer fires down an alley on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah. Lacking war training, the force has been asked to assume the role of soldiers against a resurgent Taliban. [Steve Chao/Al Jazeera]

A police officer stands guard at a checkpoint near Lashkar Gah. Behind him is an old Russian tank, a reminder of the decades of war that Afghanistan has endured. [Steve Chao/Al Jazeera]

Afghan officers are on the frontline in the battle against the Taliban on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah. [Steve Chao/Al Jazeera]

Afghan border police look for Taliban fighters from a rooftop, wary of snipers. The fierce battle for Lashkar Gah has been fought compound to compound, as government forces try to push back an emboldened Taliban. [Steve Chao/Al Jazeera]

A police officer scans for Taliban fighters across the Helmand River in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan. [Steve Chao/Al Jazeera]

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An ambulance brings a young gunshot victim to the emergency hospital in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan. [Steve Chao/Al Jazeera]

Doctors at the emergency hospital in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, treat a young man suffering from a gunshot wound to his chest. [Steve Chao/Al Jazeera]

This patient at the emergency hospital in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, lost fingers and both legs when a mine exploded. Improvised explosive devices are one of the biggest killers in this war-torn country. [Steve Chao/Al Jazeera]

Ferozah, a 54-year-old police commander, lives as a refugee in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan. Displaced by the Taliban from her village of Sistani, she is one of thousands seeking refuge in the capital of Helmand province. [Steve Chao/Al Jazeera]

Samuallah, 14, is one of the young victims of the war. He lost both his legs and parts of his hand in a mine explosion. [Steve Chao/Al Jazeera]

This young boy's father, an Afghan police officer, was injured while fighting the Taliban. Now unable to work, his family faces an uncertain future. [Steve Chao/Al Jazeera]

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