Quil Lawrence

David Aquila ("Quil") Lawrence is an award-winning correspondent for NPR News, covering the millions of Americans who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as they transition to life back at home.

Previously, Lawrence served as NPR's Bureau Chief in Kabul. He joined NPR in 2009 as Baghdad Bureau Chief – capping off ten years of reporting in Iraq and all the bordering countries. That experience made the foundation for his first book Invisible Nation: How the Kurds' Quest for Statehood is Shaping Iraq and the Middle East, published in 2008.

Before coming to NPR, Lawrence was based in Jerusalem, as Middle East correspondent for The World, a BBC/PRI co-production. For the BBC he covered the fall of the Taliban in December 2001 and returned to Afghanistan periodically to report on development, the drug trade and insurgency.

Lawrence began his career as a freelancer for NPR and various newspapers while based in Bogota, Colombia, covering Latin America. Other reporting trips took him to Sudan, Morocco, Cuba, Pakistan and Iran.

A native of Maine, Lawrence studied history at Brandeis University, with concentrations in the Middle East and Latin America. He is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Arabic.

Gains In Afghan Health: Too Good To Be True?

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Credit John Moore / Getty Images

A nurse weighs an Afghan child at a U.S.-funded clinic in Farza, Afghanistan, on Sept. 7, 2011. A new U.S.-sponsored survey shows dramatic gains in life expectancy and other aspects of health care in Afghanistan. But some experts are questioning the accuracy of the results.

Credit Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

Dr. Mohammed Rashidi talks to a mother about her severely malnourished baby at a makeshift mobile health clinic in a remote village in Afghanistan's Bamiyan province, June 12, 2011.

By Quil Lawrence

A U.S.-sponsored mortality survey released last year announced huge improvements in health across Afghanistan. But the gains are so great — including a 20-year increase in life expectancy since the U.S.-led invasion a decade ago — that experts are still arguing about whether it's correct.

During three decades of war, Afghanistan remained a black hole of health information. The few mortality studies looked at a small slice of the population and then extrapolated.

10:01 pm

Thu January 12, 2012

In Afghanistan, Some Former Taliban Become The Police

Credit Quil Lawrence / NPR

The northern Afghan town of Char Bolak is guarded by the Critical Infrastructure Police, an auxiliary police program. The U.S. is increasingly relying on ad hoc local militias to fight the Taliban, but residents and government officials have concerns about the militias.

By Quil Lawrence

NATO officials say they have reversed a disturbing trend in northern Afghanistan.

In 2009 and 2010, Taliban insurgents made inroads across the north of the country, which had been secure for years. NATO says that last year it brought the north back under control, but Afghan officials say it's thanks to one of the most controversial American tactics here: the use of ad hoc local militias.

1:09 pm

Wed January 11, 2012

Afghan Announcements Annoy U.S., Hurt Relations

Credit Massoud Hossaini / AFP/Getty Images

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, shown here during a press conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Kabul last month, has become increasingly combative toward the U.S. recently.

By Quil Lawrence

U.S.-Pakistan ties are virtually frozen. And now, relations between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Washington are once again getting frosty.

Over the weekend Karzai surprised the Americans with the demand that the largest U.S.-run prison be turned over to Afghan control much sooner that planned.

It's the latest in a series of announcements by the Afghan government that sometimes appear designed to embarrass and annoy U.S. officials, as well as complicate American plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

10:00 pm

Thu December 29, 2011

Music In Afghanistan A Sensitive Subject

Credit Daniel Wilkinson / U.S. Embassy Kabul Afghanistan/flickr.com

A performance at the Afghan National Institute of Music in November of 2010.

By Quil Lawrence

Originally published on Thu December 29, 2011 10:01 pm

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Afghanistan sits at a crossroads between central Asia, Iran and the Indian subcontinent, and the country's music reflects that. Kabul hosted two international music festivals this fall — one traditional, the other a rock concert — but music is still a sensitive issue. International donors, including the U.S., have helped refurbish a conservatory in Kabul, but some of the students say they still face disapproval from extremist elements, even at the university.

1:57 pm

Thu December 29, 2011

U.S. Military Tests Out Green Tech In Afghanistan

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Credit Gunnery Sgt. William Price Small / AP

In this photo released by the U.S. Marines and taken in December 2010, Lance Cpl. Dakota Hicks, from Laharpe, Ill., connects a radio battery to a portable solar panel communication system in Sangin District, in Afghanistan.The U.S. military is trying to wean itself off reliance on fossil fuels by employing solar energy and biofuels, among other measures.

Credit Shah Marai / AFP/Getty Images

Afghan policemen and locals watch a burned-out fuel truck, supplying a U.S.-run base, after being targeted by a bomb near Bagram Air Field near Kabul on Oct. 26. Attacks on convoys carrying supplies to U.S. troops are costly — both in monetary terms and in human life.

By Quil Lawrence

Originally published on Thu December 29, 2011 6:19 pm

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The heavy, mine-resistant vehicles that almost all U.S. military personnel use to move about Afghanistan are gas guzzlers. And even though the U.S. military buys that fuel at a reasonable price, the energy it takes to fly it and truck it to remote parts of Afghanistan drives the price into the stratosphere.

There's also a much greater cost, says Ray Mabus, secretary of the U.S. Navy.

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1:04 pm

Tue January 17, 2012