A contestant on the 28th season of The Bachelor Kelsey Anderson hangs out at the Gallery Desert House with PATRÓN EL ALTO during Stagecoach on Friday, April 25, 2025. (Photo by Angel Montalvo)

Emily clement, 9, left, and her sister, Mallory, 9, pick strawberries together at the Trunnell's Farm Market strawberry field, Saturday, May 31, 2025, in Owensboro, Ky. (Photo by USA Today)

Male members of the Zeleziar folk dance group whip and water the local girls dressed in traditional clothing, during Easter in Bociar, Slovakia on April 1, 2024. Boys and younger men visit the houses of young girls, whip them with fresh-cut decorated wickers and sprinkle water on them. By tradition, the whipping should give the girls strength, health, and abundance throughout the whole year. (Photo by Robert Nemeti/Anadolu via Getty Images)

American vedette, burlesque dancer, model, and businesswoman Dita Von Teese performs on the runway during the Alexis Mabille Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2024-2025 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 25, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by David Fisher/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Colombia's Tatiana Renteria Renteria (red) wrestles Japan's Yuka Kagami (blue) in their women's freestyle 76kg wrestling semi-final match at the Champ-de-Mars Arena during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris on August 10, 2024. (Photo by Punit Paranjpe/AFP Photo)

People wade through a flooded street after Typhoon Fung-wong hit Dagupan City, Pangasinan, Philippines, on November 10, 2025. (Photo by Noel Celisn/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.

In this June 29, 2015 photo, forlorn buildings are seen at Hashima Island, commonly known as Gunkanjima, which means “Battleship Island”, off Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture, southern Japan. The island is one of 23 old industrial facilities seeking UNESCO's recognition as world heritage “Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution” meant to illustrate Japan's rapid transformation from a feudal farming society into an industrial power at the end of the 19th century. UNESCO's World Heritage Committee is expected to approve the proposal during a meeting being held in Bonn, Germany, through July 9. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)