Employees prepare spacesuits at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on August 19, 2015. Members of the main crew of the 45/46 expedition to the International Space Station ISS, Kazakhstan's cosmonaut Aydyn Aimbetov, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and Denmark's astronaut Andreas Mogensen from the European Space Agency, are scheduled to blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) on September 2, 2015. (Photo by AFP Photo)

Police officers stand near a fishing boat, the Carolina Queen III, as it rests in shallow water just off Rockaway Beach, Thursday, February 25, 2016, in the Queens borough of New York. Authorities say a Coast Guard vessel overturned while assisting the fishing boat that ran aground in an inlet off New York City. (Photo by Frank Franklin II/AP Photo)

A physically challenged girl looks at her brother as she is kept in a basin to seek alms from people on the street in Kano, Nigeria December 30, 2015. The girl has suffered from her condition since birth. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Canada's Marissa Papaconstantinou makes her way to the finish line after falling in the Women's 200m T44 Final during day ten of the IPC World ParaAthletics Championships 2017 at London Stadium on July 23, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Peter Cziborra/Reuters)

Health authority workers sanitise the rural community of Teocelo, Veracruz, Mexico on May 12, 2020 – in the hope of preventing the spread of COVID-19 infections. (Photo by Hector Adolfo Quintanar Perez/ZUMA Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Canada's Mandy Marchak (R) is taken down by France's Pauline Biscarat during the final match of the Hong Kong Sevens rugby women's invitational cup in Hong Kong March 28, 2014. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Four-year-old Rashida from Kobani, Syria, part of a new group of more than a thousand immigrants, sleeps as they wait at border line of Macedonia and Greece to enter into Macedonia near Gevgelija railway station August 20, 2015. (Photo by Ognen Teofilovski/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.