The 20 photographs of the week

Associated Press president Gary Pruitt described Anja as 'spirited, intrepid and fearless, with a raucous laugh that we will always remember'. Here, in this photograph taken on 11 June 2011, Lance Corporal Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, clutches his Rosary beads as he is treated by US Army flight medic Sgt Joe Campbell on a medevac helicopter after being shot in the stomach outside Sangin, Afghanistan Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

Pruitt added: 'This is a profession of the brave and the passionate, those committed to the mission of bringing to the world information that is fair, accurate and important. Anja Niedringhaus met that definition in every way.' In this photograph from November 2012, a young girl reaches out to a Pakistani policeman securing the road outside Kainat Riaz's home in Mingora, Swat Valley, Pakistan. Kainat was wounded by the same Taliban gunman who shot Malala Yousufzai and 13-year-old Shazia Ramazan on their way home from school. Malala was shot for her outspoken insistence on girls' education Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

In 2012, Anja Niedringhaus wrote in a Harvard University publication on journalism: 'For me, covering conflict and war is the essence of journalism. The legacy of any photographer is her or his ability to capture the moment, to record history. For me it is about showing the struggle and survival of the individual.' Here, an injured soldier loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is interrogated by a rebel soldier at the Jalaa hospital in Benghazi, Libya, on 19 March 2011 Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

AP colleague Muhammed Muheisen, who was with her the day before she was killed, wrote: 'Anja in few words: caring, funny and committed to photography.' In this photograph taken on 9 June 2011, a US Marine walks towards food supplies after they were dropped by small parachutes from a plane outside Forward Operating Base Edi in Helmand province, Afghanistan. The smoke in the background comes from parachutes that the Marines burn after landing Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll said: 'Anja was a vibrant, dynamic journalist, well-loved for her insightful photographs, her warm heart and joy for life. We are heartbroken at her loss.' In this photograph, taken on Thursday, an Afghan girl helps her brother down from a security barrier set up outside the Independent Election Commission office in the eastern Afghan city of Khost Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

Also from this week, an Afghan soldier and a policeman queue to receive their registration cards on the last day of voter registration for the upcoming presidential elections outside a school in Kabul Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

AP Director of Photography Santiago Lyon wrote: 'Anja Niedringhaus was one of the most talented, brave and accomplished photojournalists of her generation. She truly believed in the need to bear witness.' In this photograph from last month, Pakistani bank notes covered in blood are displayed on the body of a dead suicide bomber. Police found them in his pocket after an attack on the former Afghan intelligence headquarters in Kandahar Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

Photojournalist Odd Andersen, who worked with Anja for many years, wrote, 'she gave underprivileged people a voice. She never lost sight of that'. In this photograph taken in May 2013, Afghan children peer through a fence that surrounds a swimming pool on a hill overlooking Kabul, Afghanistan. The swimming pool was built by the Soviets more than 30 years ago and has rarely been used Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

Afghan men line up next to a destroyed passenger plane as they wait for humanitarian aid to be delivered near the stadium in Kabul on 4 February 2002 Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/EPA

The 1992-95 Bosnian war was the first conflict that Niedringhaus covered. In this photograph from 21 November 1994, a French UN soldier and a woman give first aid to a Bosnian soldier shot by a bullet on Sarajevo's so-called Sniper Avenue Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AFP

A Libyan rebel prays next to his gun on the outskirts of Ajdabiya, Libya, on 21 March 2011 Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

From the same week in March 2011, Libyan rebels retreat as mortars from Muammar Gaddafi's forces are fired at them on the frontline outside Ajdabiya Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

An Afghan national police officer mans a checkpoint on the outskirts of Maidan Shahr on 15 May 2013 Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

Injured US Marine Corporal Burness Britt is lifted onto a medevac helicopter in Sangin, Afghanistan, on 4 June 2011. Niedringhaus said: 'In my 20 years as a photographer, covering conflicts from Bosnia to Gaza to Iraq to Afghanistan, injured civilians and soldiers have passed through my life many times. None has left a greater impression on me than Britt.' She searched for him for six months, finally tracking him down and visiting him in hospital in Richmond, Virginia, after he had undergone several operations and painful rehabilitation Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

Afghan day labourer Mesbah, 12, takes a rest after preparing kilns to fire bricks at a factory on the outskirts of Kabul on 7 November 2013 Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

Anja Niedringhaus was part of the AP team that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news photography for the coverage of the Iraq war. Here, US Marines of the 1st Division raid the house of a city council chairman in the Abu Ghraib district of Baghdad on 2 November 2004 Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

A Canadian soldier with the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, rests next to his guns after a mission in Khebari Ghar, Afghanistan, on 3 June 2010 Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

Lance Corporal Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, shouts out as he is rescued and lifted onto a medevac helicopter after being shot in the stomach outside Sangin, Afghanistan, on 11 June 2011 Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

An Afghan boy looks at German soldiers preparing an overnight camp during a long-term patrol in the mountainous region of Feyzabad Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

And finally from one of the last set of photographs that Anja Niedringhaus filed from the Afghan elections, policemen secure the area as presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadza arrives for a campaign rally at the stadium in Kabul Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

Anja Niedringhaus laughs as she attends an event at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Read the tribute to her from AP here Photograph: Reuters