Liverpool fans walk past a mural of the Beatle’s Abbey Road album ahead of the Carabao Cup final match between Liverpool and Chelsea at the Camp and Furnace venue in Liverpool, Britain, 25 February 2024. (Photo by Adam Vaughan/EPA)

A wild golden jackals (Canis aureus) mother and her cub entered a house for food at noon. The baby was curiously sniffing all things beside him trying to enter the room of the house and her mother immediately roared and warned her. This photo was taken ahead of the International Day for Biological Diversity 2022 at Tehatta, West Bengal, India on May 21, 2022. (Photo by Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Rescuers work to put out fire outside a damaged residential building hit by recent shelling in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine on November 7, 2023. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Artem, a serviceman of infantry battalion of the 61st mechanised brigade, pets a dog in a trench at a position near the frontline, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine on January 6, 2024. (Photo by Sofiia Gatilova/Reuters)

Iraqi security forces ride in vehicles travelling to Mosul to fight against militants of Islamic State at an Iraqi army base in Camp Taji in Baghdad, February 21, 2016. (Photo by Ahmed Saad/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.

A Vietnamese cosplayer poses as police officer character from the game during the League of Legends (LOL) Mid-Season Invitational 2019 play-in group stage, in GG Stadium, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam May 5, 2019. (Photo by Reuters/Kham)

A woman instructs a boy on how to pose for pictures in front of a mural depicting Soviet pilot Valery Chkalov – who took a non-stop flight over the Arctic and landed in the US state of Washington in 1937 – at Chkalovskaya metro station in Moscow on August 14, 2019. (Photo by Yuri Kadobnov/AFP Photo)