A light-up bow whose arrows are advertised as flying up to 145 feet and the “Catapencil” – a pencil with a miniature slingshot-style launcher on its end – are on an annual list of unsafe toys released Wednesday by a Massachusetts-based consumer watchdog group. World Against Toys Causing Harm, or W.A.T.C.H., issued the “10 Worst Toys” list to remind parents and consumers of the potential hazards in some toys as the holiday shopping season gets underway. (Photo by Charles Krupa/AP Photo)

Tens of thousands of vehicles damaged by super storm Sandy are being temporarily stored on runways and taxiways at Calverton Executive Airpark in Calverton, New York, on January 9, 2013 in this aerial view. Insurance Auto Auctions Inc, a salvage auto auction company specializing in total-loss vehicles, acquired the cars and trucks that were damaged, destroyed or flooded by the storm and needed a place to store them. The company made a deal with the Town of Riverhead to lease the airport land and then the vehicles are auctioned online. (Photo by Stan Honda/AFP Photo)

Residents observe a police officer take up position during an operation at the Mare slums complex in Rio de Janeiro March 25, 2014. The federal troops have taken control of security operations in Mare slums complex to help quell a surge in violent crime following attacks by drug traffickers on police posts in three slums on the north side of the city, government officials said. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/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 member of the Fuerza Civil (Civil Force) police unit takes part in a simulated crime situation during a media presentation to show the police model that the federal government wants for the rest of the country, at the police academy in Monterrey December 17, 2014. Fuerza Civil, a tactical team of the police unit trained by the army, was created by the Nuevo Leon government in 2011 to curb down corruption and infiltration by drug gangs in the police corps, local media reported. Promising a new law to stop the infiltration of local governments by organized crime, President Enrique Pena Nieto pledged to reform the penal system and send an proposal to Congress to unify multi-layered police forces in Mexico's 31 states. (Photo by Daniel Becerril/Reuters)

An Afghani man sells bread on a roadside in Kandahar, Afghanistan, 23 April 2024. A recent World Bank report reveals a 26% decrease in Afghanistan's gross output over the past year, primarily attributed to a 1.3 billion USD income reduction for farmers due to the ban on drug cultivation. Although tax revenue saw a modest increase of 13% in 2023, exports experienced a 15% decline specifically to Pakistan. Afghan officials highlighted efforts to spur domestic production, improve trade, stabilize the national currency, and initiate key economic projects. (Photo by Qudratullah Razwan/EPA/EFE)

Abdulahi Yaroow, 13, smokes a cigarette while chewing khat at the same time in Mogadishu August 10, 2014. Grown on plantations in the highlands of Kenya and Ethiopia, tonnes of khat, or qat, dubbed “the flower of paradise” by its users, are flown daily into Mogadishu airport, to be distributed from there in convoys of lorries to markets across Somalia. Britain, whose large ethnic Somali community sustained a lucrative demand for the leaves, banned khat from July as an illegal drug. This prohibition jolted the khat market, creating a supply glut in Somalia and pushing down prices, to the delight of the many connoisseurs of its amphetamine-like high. (Photo by Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

A terminally ill patient raises his arm in a hospice for those dying of AIDS at the Buddhist temple Wat Prabat Nampu in Lopburi province, north of Bangkok November 30, 2014. From 1992, the temple has provided housing for HIV positive patients and palliative care for those in the final stages of the AIDS disease. Data from 2013 estimates Thailand has 450,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, but only 353,000 have access to life-saving antiretroviral drugs. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)