Ever wondered what battle-hardened soldiers do when they are not skirmishing in far-off Afghanistan? If you thought they just sit around bonfires and tell war stories, the pictures on the following pages are bound to surprise you...
British soldiers jump into the Helmand river for a swim in the Sangin valley in the southern province of Helmand.
Photograph: Ahmad Masood/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
United States Army First Lieutenant Sean Snook from Concord, Massachusetts, and Alpha Company, 4th Brigade combat team,1-508, 82nd parachute infantry regiment tees off a golf ball at FOB Bullard in Zabul province, southern Afghanistan.
Photograph: Baz Ratner/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
A foreign soldier from the International Security Assistant Forces attends a Mardi Gras festival at a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation base in Kabul.
Photograph: Omar Sobhani/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
US army soldiers of 3/1 AD Task Force Bulldog react as they play video games inside the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Outpost Boston in Kherwar district in Logar province, eastern Afghanistan.
Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
US Combat Medic Health Care Specialist Seantella Cottner of the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division plays the saxophone in her Forward Aid Station tent on the Combat Operation Outpost McClain in Logar Province in Afghanistan.
Photograph: Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
A soldier of the US Army National Guard 162 Engineer Company attached with 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion of US Marine Corps rests on a floor of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicle after his MRAP was hit by road side bomb, while providing a route clearance for a convoy delivering supplies to the remote US Marine base in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan.
Photograph: Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
US Army soldiers from 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion play touch football in the early morning hours at a military base in Zhari district in Kandahar Province.
Photograph: Peter Andrews/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
US soldiers play with a remote control toy car at Delaram base in Nimroz province, southern Afghanistan.
Photograph: Marko Djurica/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
Members of US 2/8 2nd battalion 8th Marines Regiment smoke cigars as they play cards at Camp Delhi in Helmand province.
Photograph: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
British army soldiers box at the Patrol Base Jahan Zeb in a desert outside the town of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan.
Photograph: Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
A US soldier from Task Force Bronco, HHC 2-27 Infantry Battalion watches a movie on his laptop while resting inside a transit billeting tent in Forward Operating Base Fenty in Jalalabad.
Photograph: Erik de Castro/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
US Army Major Steven Potter M.D. (left) and Captain Kimberley Kubricht CRNA of the 628 Forward Surgical Team do yoga during a break in a intensive care unit in Forward Operating Base Shank in Logar province, eastern Afghanistan.
Photograph: Umit Bektas/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
A US soldier from Comanche Troop 3rd Squadron 4th Cavalry lists down soldiers doing pull-ups on a bar at the entrance of a mess hall in Forward Operating Base Connolly in Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan.
Soldiers are required to do six pull-ups before every meal.
Photograph: Erik De Castro/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
Canadian army soldiers sun bathe in Seprwan Ghar forward fire base the Panjwai district of Kandahar province southern Afghanistan.
Canada will end its combat role in Afghanistan by the end of July, after nearly 10 years fighting in Afghanistan.
Photograph: Baz Ratner/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
Shadows are cast on a mud compound wall by Afghan National Army soldiers playing volleyball at their base in Talibjan in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province.
Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
Dutch soldiers sit in front of a fire in the Baluchi pass in Uruzgan province.
Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
US army soldier Sgt Kaylon Ross from Task Force TF Yukon Charlie troops 1-40 CAV plays the guitar while his comrade jokes with an Afghan national army soldier at Wilderness FOB in Paktya province, Afghanistan.
Photograph: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
A US Marine gives his comrade a haircut at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan.
Photograph: Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
US soldiers from the NATO-led coalition force relax beside a basketball court as night falls at the Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan.
Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters
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Between wars: How troops battle STRESS in Afghanistan
US soldiers and contractors pray during a Gospel service at St Michael's Chapel in Forward Operating Base Shank in Logar province, eastern Afghanistan.
Photograph: Umit Bektas/Reuters
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