This photo taken on December 2, 2023 shows pandas eating inside their enclosure at a zoo in China's southwestern Chongqing municipality. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

The aerial view shows terraced hills at Helin village in Anqing, in eastern China's Anhui province on January 12, 2024. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

Soldiers and firefighters carry the body of Chilean President Salvador Allende, wrapped in a Bolivian poncho, out of La Moneda presidential palace after it was bombed during a coup by Gen. Augusto Pinochet in Santiago, Chile, September 11, 1973. (Phoot by El Mercurio/AP Photo)

Revelers run through the festival grounds to see the next show at the Governors Ball music festival at Corona Park in the Queens borough of New York City, U.S., June 9, 2024. (Photo by Cheney Orr/Reuters)

In this Sunday, March 5, 2017, photo, hospitality staff take souvenir photos in front of the Great Hall of the People where the National People's Congress is held in Beijing. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)

Vehicles move past a man resting on a taxi, as he waits for passengers, along a road in Karachi, Pakistan, May 5, 2015. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/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.

A car drives through a flooded road following heavy rain in Gaza City on December 27, 2019. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP Photo)