School children take photographs as Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Valentine's Park Redbridge as part of her Diamond Jubilee tour of the UK on March 29, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

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.

This undated image provided by World View shows World View capsule and balloon spacecraft that will rise to 100,000 feet above Earth for passengers to see the curvature of the planet and the blackness of space. Space tourism companies are employing designs including winged vehicles, vertical rockets with capsules and high-altitude balloons. While developers envision ultimately taking people to orbiting habitats, the moon or beyond, the immediate future involves short flights into or near the lowest reaches of space without going into orbit. (Photo by World View via AP Photo)

A woman made-up with the technique of Body Paint seen during the 2nd Spanish tattoo artists Convention of the Only Tattoo Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain on March 17, 2018. (Photo by Ramon Costa/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A Thai Buddhist monk prepares to take part in a televised anti-plague prayer at Wat Traimit Temple (Temple of the Golden Buddha) amid lockdown restrictions to contain the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Bangkok on March 25, 2020. The monks at Buddhist temples nationwide chanted the Rattanasoot (Seven Legends) Prayer in unison in a bid to boost public morale amid the epidemic of COVID-19 coronavirus. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

A woman wearing a protective mask is seen behind a girl dressed in a Plague Doctor Mask in Western-Ukrainian city of Lviv, Ukraine, 22 March 2020. Ukrainian Designer Anastasia Markovska sewed protective masks looking like Plague Doctor Masks, the traditional costume of Venice Carnival, for herself and her friends due to the ongoing pandemic of the COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. In Ukraine had been 47 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19, including three deaths and one recovery as Ukraine's Health Ministry announced. (Photo by Pavlo Palamarchuk/EPA/EFE)

A young boy scavenges for re-sellable items from garbage on the streets, runs past a sign showing incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, left, and local party official Mustapha Dankadai, right, in Kano, northern Nigeria Friday, February 15, 2019. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A winter swimmer jumps into a pool in the frozen Songhua River during an activity for welcoming the Chinese New Year on January 30, 2022 in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province of China. (Photo by Liu Yang/VCG via Getty Images)