Elle & The Pocket Belles on day three of the Qatar Goodwood Festival 2022 at Goodwood Racecourse, Chichester on Thursday July 28, 2022. (Photo by Steven Paston/PA Wire)

Myanmar's Theiri Aung, seen in action during the women's sepak takraw semifinal against Vietnam, at the Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, on May 17, 2022. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Women react after a deadly blaze in the early hours of the morning, in Johannesburg, South Africa on August 31, 2023. (Photo by Shiraaz Mohamed/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.

Following a large air raid by German bombers, local people, coming out of their air raid shelters found a bus standing on end in a large crater, in Balham, London, October 15, 1940. (Photo by AP Photo)

Tyson the Bulldog sits with reindeer antlers on Christmas Day at Central Park in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., December 25, 2016. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Men dressed in protective suits stand around the coffin of Kenyan doctor Daniel Alushula who died of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), during his funeral in the village of Khumusalaba, in Kakamega county, Kenya on November 13, 2020. (Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters)

A woman poses for a photo on a street decorated for the fore coming Lunar New Year in Bangkok's Chinatown on February 9, 2021. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)