Afghanistan is a combat zone. Kirghistan, where she was deployed is not, other than in the sense that most any 3rd world country full of Muslims, even nominally friendly ones as in this case, is something of a combat zone.
As it happens, one of my sister's in law is from Bishkek, Kirghistan. She's not a Muslim though, but is ethnically Ukrainian (mostly). It's somewhat backwards, but no more so than say the major cities of India or Mexico. It's not Afghanistan, technically or culturally.... Still it is full of Muslims, many of them who are also at least partly Mongols. Scary combination, eh?