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ZORBANDAR, PAKISTAN- DECEMBER 2008 .Working next to a bed of wedding linen, twenty year old Khalil takes apart his Kalashnikov rifle for cleaning at the Zorbandar forward battalion head quarters during a day time lull in fighting..From Peshawar, Khalil has been on the front line in Bajaur for the last three months- his unit recently advanced along the Nawagai Valley defeating the Taliban at their Zarbandar stronghold. Now based in a farmhouse there, the soldiers live around the remnants of a family long since gone. (KEYSTONE/NOOR/Alixandra Fazzina)