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.

Films that are being screened are advertised in a makeshift cinema located under a bridge in the old quarters of Delhi, India May 25, 2016. A makeshift cinema hall under a 140-year-old bridge in the Indian capital is allowing poor rickshaw pullers and migrant labourers to escape daily hardship and sweltering heat into a world of Bollywood song, dance and romance. With the rusty iron floor of the bridge as its ceiling and some old rags acquired on the cheap from a nearby crematorium serving as curtains and floor mats, the cinema shows four films a day. (Photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)

(L-R) Edmea Pereira, 69, Elsa Rodrigues, 61, and Osmidio Conde, 71, take part in their surf class in Santos, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, March 16, 2016. When work is up, surf is up in Brazil, as a group of retired citizens take to the waves in keep-fit, keep-young sessions at a surf school in the city of Santos. The classes are run for free, three times a week at the Cisco Arana school, which aims to prove that age is just a number. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

A girl dressed up as a emissary of the Three Wise Men poses for a photo as she waits for their arrival in a helicopter to take part in the traditional Epiphany parade in Ronda, Spain, January 5, 2018. (Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters)

A devotee dressed as Hindu Lord Shiva waits to participate in a parade during “Kumbh Mela” or the Pitcher Festival in Trimbakeshwar, India, August 18, 2015. The Kumbh Mela takes place four times every 12 years at four different river bank locations in India. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

Eighty one-year-old Sakon Haba (L) wearing loin cloth walks past a police station after he bathed in ice-cold water at the Teppozu Inari shrine in Tokyo January 11, 2015. According to organizers, about 100 participants took part in the Shinto ceremony to purify their souls and wish for good health in the new year. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)

U.S. Corporal Stanley Suski, left, and Miss Tamako, a Geisha girl, whirl a bit of Jitterbug, in a bar, in Tokyo, Japan, on October 1, 1945. (Photo by AP Photo)

Skiers and snow boarders descend from a slope as they attempt to break the record for mass skiing in swimming suits at Rosa Khutor resort near Sochi, Russia, April 9, 2016. (Photo by Kazbek Basayev/Reuters)