A bird stands near people waiting on South Padre Island to watch the SpaceX Starship rocket launch from Starbase, Texas, on May 27, 2025. SpaceX mission control lost contact with the upper stage of Starship as it leaked fuel, spun out of control, and made an uncontrolled reentry after flying halfway around the world, likely disintegrating over the Indian Ocean, officials said. (Photo by Sergio Flores/AFP Photo)

Cheng Chen (R), a 27-year-old worker at a state-owned enterprise, poses for a photograph with his nephew who is wearing his home-made Iron Man armour, in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province April 13, 2015. It cost Cheng about 500 yuan ($81 USD) to make the armour, which weighs about 4 kilograms, with plastic boards and LED lights, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A woman walks at the Boulevard of the River the eve of the International Women's Day, in Cali, Colombia, 07 March 2019. (Photo by Ernesto Guzman Jr./EPA/EFE)

Pakistani civil society activists release lanterns into the sky in Lahore on December 15, 2016, as they pay tribute to victims on the second anniversary of an attack on The Army Public School in the city of Peshawar. Taliban militants attacked on Pakistani Army Public School in Peshawar, killing 151 people mostly children on December 16, 2014. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)

Ai (R) and Hamuka dressed in “Lolita fashion”, influenced by Victorian style, pose for a photographs at Harajuku shopping district in Tokyo, Japan March 15, 2018. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A Puffin jumps into its burrow with a mouthful of sea eels to feed its chick on Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire in Wales, Britain June 21, 2016. (Photo by Rebecca Naden/Reuters)

Throughout the course of the long war in Afghanistan, Coalition troops have relied on thousands of military working dogs to help keep them safe, and make their jobs easier. The dogs are trained to detect explosives, to find illegal drugs, to search for missing comrades, or target enemy combatants. Not only are they active on the front lines, but behind the lines they serve as therapy dogs, service dogs, and loyal companions. They also share the same risks as the ground troops, suffering injuries and sometimes death on the battlefields. Gathered here are images of these dogs and their handlers in Afghanistan and back home, from over the past several years, part of the ongoing series here on Afghanistan.

People eat sushi off the body of a model at an opening event of a bar in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, August 22, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)