Kaw-Claa, a Tlingit native woman in full potlatch dancing costume, 1906. (Photo by Case & Draper/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

Mortuary workers walk past a Christmas tree as they remove the body of an elderly person who died of COVID-19 from a nursing home in downtown Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, December 23, 2020. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

Tourists wear protective masks in Sanur, Bali, Indonesia, 15 March 2020. Indonesia has around 80 active cases of Covid-19. More than 70,000 people worldwide have recovered from coronavirus, nearly half of the total infections recorded since the outbreak began. (Photo by Made Nagi/EPA/EFE)

A woman takes a selfie in front of a sculpture of a rooster that local media say bears resemblance to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, outside a shopping mall in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, China December 30, 2016. (Photo by Jon Woo/Reuters)

A woman, covered in coloured powder, takes part in the 2019 Colour Run, a 5 km run around the Luzhniki Olympic Complex, in Moscow, Russia on June 02, 2019. (Photo by Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

A couple poses for a joint photograph in a photo booth (photomaton) at a metro station in Paris on July 24, 2024. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo)

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 pilgrim crawls in front of the Navy band outside the Holy Church of Panagia of Tinos, on the Aegean island of Tinos, Greece, on Saturday, August 15, 2020. For nearly 200 years, Greek Orthodox faithful have flocked to Tinos for the August 15 feast day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the most revered religious holiday in the Orthodox calendar after Easter. But this year there was no procession, the ceremony – like so many lives across the globe – upended by the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Thanassis Stavrakis/AP Photo)