This artist image released from Japan's airline All Nippon Airways (ANA) on April 17, 2015 shows ANA's Boeing 787-9 aircraft into the colors of R2-D2 robot of Star Wars. Japanese air carrier ANA will place the special colored jetliner in service in this autumn. (Photo by AFP Photo/All Nippon Airways)

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.

American actress Kiernan Shipka stretches her hot-pink look across a boat in the second half of April 2022. (Photo by Instagram/kiernanshipka)

Four men ride a motorbike past sacrificial animals displayed for sale ahead of the Eid al-Adha festival at a livestock market in Sana'a, Yemen, 08 August 2019. Eid al-Adha is the holiest of the two Muslims holidays celebrated each year; it marks the yearly Muslim pilgrimage (Hajj) to visit Mecca, Islam's holiest place. Muslims slaughter a sacrificial animal and split the meat into three parts: one for family, one for friends and relatives, and one for the poor and needy. (Photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA/EFE)

A man sits at the back of his car in the city centre of Yangon on September 15, 2023. (Photo by Sai Aung Main/AFP Photo)

An affected boy walks along a muddy street after heavy rain in Nowshera district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, Friday, September 2, 2022. Planes carrying fresh supplies are surging across a humanitarian air bridge to flood-ravaged Pakistan as the death toll surged past 1,200, officials said Friday, with families and children at special risk of disease and homelessness. (Photo by Mohammad Sajjad/AP Photo)

This picture taken on April 5, 2022 shows a train travelling along a bridge past cherry blossoms in Tokyo's Shinagawa district. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)

A woman sells chips in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on August 09, 2019. World's number one cacao producer Ivory Coast's capital Abidjan set peace after the 201011 Ivorian crisis. Women in Abidjan work in various jobs to help their families' budget. (Photo by Mahmut Serdar Alakus/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)