Germany's Wolfgang Kimmig-Liebe, who has been volunteering as Santa Claus for years, is searched by a Carabiniere paramilitary police officer before entering in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican to attend Pope Francis general audience, Wednesday, December 2, 2015. (Photo by Alessandra Tarantino/AP Photo)

A sun bear is offered chocolate by a visitor in its enclosure at a zoo in Bandung on January 18, 2017. Animal rights activists on January 18 demanded the closure of an Indonesian zoo after skeletal sun bears were pictured begging for food from visitors and eating their own dung. (Photo by Timur Matahari/AFP Photo)

Some runners fall during the “El Pilon” running-the-bulls in the village of Falces, Navarra, northern Spain, 16 August 2022. “El Pilon” running-the-bulls is held on a hill where runners have to avoid the herd of cows on a 800 meter long and narrow slope with the mountain on one side and a steep cliff on the other. (Photo by Peio H/EPA/EFE)

A girl jumps over a campfire while celebrating Ivan Kupala Night, a traditional Slavic holiday not far from Kiev on July 6, 2013. During the celebration, originating in pagan times, people plait wreaths, jump over fires, and swim naked. (Photo by Sergei Supinsky/AFP Photo)

A woman reacts as she receives the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine under the COVAX scheme against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya on March 5, 2021. (Photo by Monicah Mwangi/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.

Indian Muslim children hold anti-US placards as they participate in a protest meeting against the film “Innocence of Muslims” in Kolkata on October 5, 2012. A low-budget, US-produced “Innocence of Muslims” movie has incited a wave of bloody anti-US violence in Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen and in several other countries across the Muslim world. (Photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/AFP Photo)

A Ukrainian serviceman wearing a new year's hat waves at his comrades while standing beside his tank near Debaltseve, eastern Ukraine, February 8, 2015. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)