The “Dancing With Costica” series began when Australia-based photographer Jane Long decided to brush up on her retouching skills. After finding the Costica Acsinte Archive on Flickr, she became fascinated with the images and their subjects, wanting to bring them to life and give them a story. Here: the Costica photo on the left inspired Jane Long to create her version, titled “Innocence”. (Photo by Costica Acsinte Archive/Jane Long)

Students wearing masks rest amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Seoul, South Korea, August 25, 2020. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

An annual fire festival is held in Nachikatsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, on July 14, 2019. (Photo by Kyodo News via 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.

Hotel staff practice self-defence skills after a training session given by team member of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, April 7, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Men rest on a boat in the overflowed Ganges River under the Shastri Bridge in Allahabad on August 17, 2022, as water levels of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers rose following monsoon rainfalls. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

A visitor stands in front of a portrait taken by artist Bruce Gilden at the “Masters of Photography” exhibition at the Photokina trade fair in Cologne on September 20, 2016. The fair for the photographic and imaging sector, that is running from September 20 to 25, 2016, presents products from image capture, image processing and storage to image output. Photokina also includes a program of events with congresses, workshops, symposiums and photography exhibitions. (Photo by Patrik Stollarz/AFP Photo)

An Afghan boy looks through the scope of a toy gun, as other children ride on swings during the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, in Kabul, Afghanistan June 25, 2017. (Photo by Omar Sobhani/Reuters)