A stray puppy walks along abandoned train tracks near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on August 19, 2017 near Chornobyl, Ukraine. An estimated 900 stray dogs live in the exclusion zone, many of them likely the descendants of dogs left behind following the mass evacuation of residents in the aftermath of the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

A man eats in front of his Basset Hounds during the first day of the Crufts Dog Show in Birmingham, Britain March 9, 2017. (Photo by Darren Staples/Reuters)

Police Cpl. Cristiano de Oliveira offers a hand to police dog “Corporal Oliveira”, at the 17 Military Police Battalion's station, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, April 7, 2022. Oliveira is one of two rescue dogs that have turned into local mascots and budding online influencers after joining their rescuers' ranks. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)

Army paratroopers carry the casket of Private Howard at the Wellington Cathedral on December 21, 2010 in Wellington, New Zealand. Private Howard was serving with the British army when was killed by friendly fire from a US Air Force plane in Helmand Province, Afghanistan earlier this month. Private Howard is the fifth NZ-born soldier to be killed in action in Afghanistan. (Photo by Marty Melville/Getty Images)

In this aerial view the officers' building and an auditorium stand at the former Soviet military base on January 26, 2017 in Wuensdorf, Germany. Wuensdorf, once called “The Forbidden City”, was the biggest base for the Soviet armed forces in communist East Germany from 1945 until the last Soviet troops left in the early 1990s following the end of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Russian honour guards march during the military parade at Red Square in Moscow on November 7, 2018. Russia marks the 77th anniversary of the 1941 historical parade, when Red Army soldiers marched past the Kremlin walls towards the front line to fight Nazi Germany troops during World War Two. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier assigned to the Mobile Strike Force Kandak fires a RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launcher during a live-fire exercise supervised by the Marines with the Mobile Strike Force Advisor Team on Camp Shorabak, Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 20, 2013. The Marines with the Mobile Strike Force Advisor Team instructed and mentored their ANA counterparts on how to properly utilize their weapons systems. (Photo by SSgt Ezekiel R. Kitandwe/RCT 7)

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.