Dancers perform on their way to attend a rally with former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, “Lula”, supporting President Dilma Rousseff in the historic Lapa neighborhood on April 11, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Brazil's congressional impeachment committee approved the motion to proceed with President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment process today. A full vote by the lower house of Congress on the impeachment is scheduled for Sunday to decide whether she will face trial. (Photo by Mario Tama/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.

Indian children work nearby to their parents at a construction project in front of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on January 30, 2010 in New Delhi, India. The children accompany their parents to the work site, where if they are prepared to work, they will receive money for bread an milk and be provided with dinner by the contractor. The sheer scale of the project has drawn an enormous population of migrant workers from all over India.

A boy looks back while he and another boy play on a Syrian military tank, destroyed during fighting with the Rebels, in the Syrian town of Azaz, on the outskirts of Aleppo, Sunday, September 2, 2012. (Photo by Muhammed Muheisen/AP Photo)

Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, shouts out as he is rescued on a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift “Dust Off”, Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment after he got shot in the stomach outside Sangin, in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan on June 11, 2011. The Army's 'Dust Off' crew needed two attempts to get him out, as they were fired upon and took five rounds of bullets into the tail of their aircraft. (Photo by Anja Niedringhaus/AP Photo/File)

A fruit vendor pushes his cart through a flooded street after a heavy rainfall in Lahore on September 21, 2021. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)

A visitor checks automatic gun during International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) 2022 at the Expo Centre in Karachi on November 16, 2022. (Photo by Rizwan Tabassum/AFP Photo)

A boy tumbles as he plays soccer on the streets of the Khayelitsha township in Cape Town, December 3, 2009. (Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)