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 woman cries after her husband was shot dead by unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles in Manila, Philippines late October 10, 2016. According to police reports, around 2,300 people have been killed in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's war against illegal drugs. The figure was revised by the police from an original tally of around 3,600 deaths. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

A man sleeps between tombstones in front of his single-room home on a hot night in the Cairo Necropolis, Egypt, October 13, 2015. In the sprawling Cairo Necropolis, known as the City of the Dead, life and death are side by side. Amid a housing crisis in Egypt, and with the population of greater Cairo estimated at about 20 million, people count themselves lucky to have a place to call home in the graveyards that date back hundreds of years. (Photo by Asmaa Waguih/Reuters)

The interior of a house is damaged after an earthquake in Imphal, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, Monday, January 4, 2016. Five deaths have been reported from in and around Imphal due to falling debris. Imphal has a population of 270,000, and people were jolted from their sleep and ran out of their homes in panic. (Photo by Bullu Raj/AP Photo)

The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities of the Soviet Union. The Chernobyl disaster is the worst nuclear power plant accident in history in terms of cost and resulting deaths, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event (the maximum classification) on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011). Photo: Graffiti of a crying baby on a wall, Chernobyl Power Plant, Chernobyl, Ukraine. (Photo by Hans Neleman/Getty Images)

The pictures made by Elizabeth Gadd are so beautiful, tranquil, and mesmerizing, that they wash over your soul in a wave of sadness. The same sadness that you feel when hearing a wonderful piece of music. The same sadness that enters your soul when you worry to death about your loved one, but everything turns out to be just fine. These aren’t just pictures… The pieces of art that Elizabeth, a 21-year-old self-taught photographer makes, are windows into fairytales; portals into other dimensions. Works so surreal, that it makes you wonder if the scenes that you are seeing were actually shot on this planet; that they are not figments of Beth’s imagination. (Photo by Elizabeth Gadd)

“The Siege of Sidney Street, popularly known as the “Battle of Stepney”, was a notorious gunfight in London's East End on the 2nd of January 1911. Preceded by the Houndsditch Murders, it ended with the deaths of two members of a supposedly politically-motivated gang of burglars supposedly led by Peter Piatkow, a.k.a. “Peter the Painter”, and sparked a major political row over the involvement of the then Home Secretary, Winston Churchill”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Scots Guards and police on duty during the “Siege of Sidney Street” in east London. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images). 3rd January 1911

A fisherman is seen standing on a cliff edge at Cape Bank in La Perouse on February 20, 2011 in Sydney, Australia. The practice of fishing from rock platforms, cliffs and rocky outcrops is notoriously dangerous with many anglers per year being washed into the ocean by dangerous surf or unexpected large waves. Angling is often reported as the sport having the highest mortality rate on average due to fishermen drowning with rocking fishing contributing to a high number of these deaths. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)