2. Helmand, Afghanistan

This Taliban stronghold and opium production center saw one of the largest military campaigns of the War of Afghanistan. International Security Assistance Forces and the Taliban were locked in deadly combat from 2006 to 2014. 800 ISAF troopers were killed, as well as 7.000 Taliban. In 2010 the ISAF pacification “Operation Moshtarak” installed an Afghan governor, whose hold on the region remains tenuous to this day.