A Pegasus airplane is seen stuck in mud as it skidded off the runway after landing in Trabzon Airport, Turkey early Sunday on January 14, 2018. A passage plane which belongs to Turkey's Pegasus Airlines skidded off the runway of Trabzon airport Saturday and ended up halfway down a steep slope into the Black Sea, Turkish media reported on Sunday. 162 passengers and crew on board were safely evacuated. (Photo by Hakan Burak Altunoz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

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.

In this October 6, 1976, file photo, a right-wing student, center foreground, draws his arm back to strike a captured and wounded leftist student being taken by police to an ambulance in during a student massacre in Bangkok, Thailand. This year’s anti-government protests are seeking new elections, a more democratic constitution and an end to intimidation of political activists. Their speeches have repeatedly highlighted the 1976 tragedy, piquing the interest of the current generation in what their forebears faced. (Photo by Neal Ulevich/AP Photo/File)

A Vietnamese bride is seen pushing the groom on a scooter during a photo shoot for their wedding in An Bang Beach outside Hoi An in Vietnam December 11, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

An actress dressed as Wonder Woman walks between visitors during the season inauguration of the Madrid Warner amusement park in San Martin de Valdeiglesias, near Madrid, Spain, March 18, 2016. (Photo by Andrea Comas/Reuters)

An art installation formed with milk churns, made by land art artist Gerard Benoit a la Guillaume, is seen at the Chenau de Mayen in the resort of Leysin, Switzerland August 7, 2015. More than 80 milk churns were placed between the Tour d'Ai and the Tour de Mayen summits at an altitude of 2,000 meters (6,561 feet) above sea level under the direction of the artist, to be photographed for his ongoing art project entitled “Milk churns without borders”. (Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

A child plays with a mock submachine gun at a model Mass Transit Railway (MTR) station to mark the National Security Education Day at Hong Kong Police College in Hong Kong, China on April 15, 2021. The “education day” was organized to promote the sweeping legislation China imposed last year, marked with school activities, games and shows, and a parade by police and other services. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

In this undated handout photograph from the “Inside Out Project”, a poster bearing the image of a Pakistani girl whose parents, lawyers say, were killed in a drone strike, lies in a field at an undisclosed location in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. A group of artists in Pakistan are hoping to generate “empathy” among US drone operators by placing giant posters of children in the country's troubled tribal regions. (Photo by AFP Photo)