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 local resident of Red Hook, Betty Walsh, crosses a flooded street in Red Hook August 28, 2011 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. While Hurricane Irene has been downgraded to a tropical storm, it has knocked out power to more than 3 million people and is attributed to 15 deaths as it travels up the Eastern seaboard. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

In this photo posted on Twitter, Sunday, May 3, 2015, and provided by NASA, Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti sips espresso from a cup designed for use in zero-gravity, on the International Space Station. Cristoforetti, the first Italian woman in space, fired up the first espresso machine in space, which uses small capsules, or pods, of espresso coffee. (Photo by AP Photo/NASA)

Young cheetahs eat meat at The Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) center in Otjiwarongo, Namibia, on August 13, 2013. The CCF started breeding Anatolian livestock dogs to promote cheetah-friendly farming after some 10,000 big cats – the current total worldwide population – were killed or moved off farms in the 1980s. Up to 1,000 cheetahs were being killed a year, mostly by farmers who saw them as livestock killers. But the use of dogs has slashed losses for sheep and goat farmers and led to less retaliation against the vulnerable cheetah. (Photo by Jennifer Bruce/AFP Photo)

Participants, one of them loosing balance, jump in a sack race at a shopping center in Paris to win a 500 euros voucher (537 USD), on the first day of the winter sales in Paris, France, Wednesday, January 6 , 2016. The five-week 2016 winter sales start everywhere across France on Wednesday Jan. 6 and end on Feb. 16. (Photo by Francois Mori/AP Photo)

Student of Meiji University Yuki Hou licks a screen of Taste the TV (TTTV), a prototype lickable TV screen that can imitate the flavours of various foods, during its demonstration at the university in Tokyo, Japan, December 22, 2021. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Commuters watch after their train was blocked by leftist activists at a railway station during a nationwide general strike against the policies of the central government in Kolkata on March 28, 2022. (Photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP Photo)

A cosplayer dressed as Batman wearing the Hellbat suit crosses the road during Day 1 of New York Comic Con at Javits Center on October 07, 2021 in New York City. Comic Con has returned this year after being cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)