Afghanistan War, international conflict in Afghanistan beginning in 2001 that was triggered by the September 11 attacks and consisted of three phases. The first phase—toppling the Taliban (the ultraconservative political and religious faction that ruled Afghanistan and provided sanctuary for al-Qaeda, perpetrators of the September 11 attacks)—was brief, lasting just two months.

Afghanistan, multiethnic landlocked country located in the heart of south-central Asia. Lying along important trade routes connecting southern and eastern Asia to Europe and the Middle East, Afghanistan has long been a prize sought by empire builders, and for millennia great armies have attempted to subdue it, leaving traces of their efforts in great monuments now fallen to ruin.

n Herat, the beautiful, culturedand self-assured city in westernAfghanistan, I watched membersof a warlord’s militia beat todeath two men they accused ofbeing Taliban, and throw their bodiesinto the street. Then they shot theremains full of bullets until one ofthem, at least, was unrecognisable.The killers punched the air with fistsclutching guns and chanted AllahuAkbar, god is greatest.

A defamation case is usually about evasion. Close your eyes for a second and you can (almost) hear a lawyer pleading: 'Oh no your honour. We certainly weren't suggesting our article was about the defendant and even if (totally accidentally) we did, we certainly didn't mean to imply whatever it was we hinted at'. Such trials swiftly take on an air of unreality and detachment and there's a simple reason why. Proving 'truth' - the only other defence available to media companies - is so very, very hard.

Both legs blown away by a mine, he sat on a chair outside his family's house and watched the world go by. This was his hopeless lot for five long, bleak years until a life altering chain of events.

BENGHAZI, Libya — Tim Hetherington, a conflict photographer who was a director and producer of the Afghan war documentary “Restrepo,” was killed in the besieged city of Misurata, Libya, on Wednesday, and three photographers working beside him were wounded, one fatally, when they came under fire at the city’s front lines.

"It is with great sadness we learned that our son and brother, photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington, was killed today in Misrata, Libya, by a rocket-propelled grenade," the Hetherington family wrote on Facebook.

In response to Nick Turse’s critique of his recent war documentary Restrepo, Hetherington fires back: “I think his opinion of what needs to be said about the war has clouded his viewing of the film.”

While promoting The Hurt Locker, director Kathryn Bigelow repeatedly avowed her belief in the experiential power of cinema – the medium’s ability to provide an immersive, you-are-there experience of a faraway environment.

Restrepo follows a US platoon into the Korengal Valley - a location considered to be one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan. Over the course of 15 months filmmakers, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger (author of The Perfect Storm), lived with the unit and shadowed their every move. As a result, Restrepo features some truly extraordinary footage.

There have been a lot of movies and documentaries about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan lately. Plenty of very good ones like No End in Sight or The Hurt Locker. They tell the stories of how we got there or what happened once we did. None of them had the emotional impact that Restrepo brought to the table.

A feature-length documentary that chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soliders in Afghanisatn'ss Korengal Valley. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, Restrepo, named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the US military.

At 31, Sebastian Junger, then a struggling freelance journalist and part-time waiter, visited his first war zone in Bosnia. Now, with 17 years, a healthy Vanity Fair retainer and one massive blockbuster adaptation of a novel (The Perfect Storm) under his belt, his experiences of his last tour of duty are here, on the back of Sundance Grand Jury glory and pitched as the first “apolitical” documentary on Afghanistan.

2011 Nominee Oscar
Best Documentary, Features
Tim HetheringtonSebastian Junger

"Restrepo," which tells of a year in the life of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, earned the jury prize for best documentary for filmmakers Sebastian Junger (author of "The Perfect Storm") and Tim Hetherington.
"This country's in a very painful moment, we're in the middle of two wars," Junger said on stage, accepting his award. "If our movie can help this country understand how to go forward, we would be incredibly honored by that."

The Red Chapel and Restrepo won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema and US Documentary Competitions, respectively, as the 2010 Sundance Film Festival came to a resounding close.

Bestselling author Sebastian Junger and photojournalist Tim Hetherington, both seasoned war reporters, have just released a powerful new documentary, Restrepo. In order to show the true experience of an American solider, the pair joined the men of Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade for a full deployment.