Democratic presidential candidate and US Vice President Kamala Harris reacts as she holds a photographer's camera while flying on Marine Two, on her way to O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois, on August 20, 2024. Harris is traveling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to speak at a campaign event. (Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Pool via AFP Photo)

British model Cara Delevingne presents a creation for L'Oreal Paris show “Walk Your Worth” as part of the Paris Fashion Week Women Ready-to-wear Spring-Summer 2025 collection at Palais Garnier (Opera national de Paris) opera house, in Paris on September 23, 2024. (Photo by Julien de Rosa/AFP Photo)

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.

A picture made available on 17 July 2015 shows the bright line of the Milky Way above the old oaks at the Rogalin landscape Park in Rogalin village, near Poznan, on the night of 16 July 2015. (Photo by Lukasz Ogrodowczyk/EPA)

Nepalese army personnel pay tributes before the body of a person who died of COVID-19 before cremating the same in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, August 17, 2020. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

Madagascan sunset setting over the 98-foot-tall baobab trees of the Avenue of the Baobabs located in Menabe, Madagascar on August 2020. (Photo by Kim Paffen/MediaDrumImages)

A police officer patrols as people party on a street as pubs shut for the night due to tier 3 restrictions in Soho, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in London, Britain, December 15, 2020. (Photo by Henry Nicholls/Reuters)

Dutch cyclist Fabio Jakobsen's bicycle (behind, L) flies through the air as he collides with compatriot Dylan Groenewegen (on the ground, L) during the opening stage of the Tour of Poland race in Katowice, southern Poland on August 5, 2020. The Dutch rider was fighting for his life on Wednesday after he was thrown into and over a barrier at 80km/h in a sickening conclusion to the opening stage of the Tour of Poland. (Photo by Szymon Gruchalski/Forum/AFP Photo)