Artists perform near a Soviet-era monument during celebration of Maslenitsa, also known as Pancake Week, which is a pagan holiday marking the end of winter, in Yevpatoriya, Crimea on March 14, 2021. (Photo by Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters)

A police officer who was injured when falling of a horse during scuffles with demonstrators at Downing Street during a Black Lives Matter march in London, Saturday, June 6, 2020, is dragged by colleagues, as people protest against the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, USA. Floyd, a black man, died after he was restrained by Minneapolis police while in custody on May 25 in Minnesota. (Photo by Frank Augstein/AP Photo)

A youth poses while holding two fishes before his face in Iraq's southern port city of al-Faw, 90 kilometres south of Basra near the Shatt al-Arab and the Gulf, on May 18, 2020. In Iraq, a national lockdown to halt the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has found some unexpected fans: local businesses who no longer have to compete with Turkish, Iranian or Chinese imports. Those countries, as well as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait, typically flood Iraqi markets with inexpensive products at prices local producers can't compete with. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP Photo)

A woman, wearing a traditional Sevillana dress, performs as she asks for alms in downtown Malaga, Spain, April 28, 2016. (Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters)

A visitor kneels on the 180-meter-high and 300 meter-long glass-bottomed suspension bridge at the Shiniuzhai National Geopark in Pingjiang county, in central China's Hunan province, 24 September 2015. (Photo by Jiao Zi/Imaginechina via AFP Photo)

Local boy Faddei plays in a destroyed Russian military truck in the village of Kolychivka, in Chernihiv region, Ukraine on April 27, 2022. (Photo by Vladyslav Musiienko/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.

The Rio Tinto river in Spain crosses an ancient mining site which makes the water turn a variety of bright colours. Copper, silver and gold are mined here, as well as iron, which turns the water red. An ochre mix is responsible for the yellow tint of the rest of the river. (Photo by Olivier Jarry-Lancombe/Solent News)