The popular K-pop group Blackpink watch the fireworks at Etihad Park from the stage at the end of the show in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Photo by Live Nation Entertainment)

A fisherman carries a sailfish on his head to the fish market in Hamarweyne near the port of Mogadishu on April, 4, 2016. (Photo by Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP Photo)

Manchester United's Amad Diallo, left, challenges for the ball with Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Chelsea at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, September 20, 2025. (Photo by Dave Thompson/AP Photo)

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.

Kendall Jenner attends the screening of “Girls Of The Sun (Les Filles Du Soleil)” during the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 12, 2018 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty Images)

A father crosses a road with his twin daughters in Shanghai, China September 28, 2018. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

English fashion designer Mary Quant (R) with a group of models at Heathrow Airport, before leaving for a continental fashion tour, 18th March 1968. (Photo by Express/Getty Images)

Activists from the animal rights group PETA wearing bikinis and crocodile masks assist each other outside a store of the French fashion label Hermes in Sydney on March 4, 2021, as they protest against their use of crocodile skins and the recent purchases by Hermes and LVMH of crocodile farms in Australia's Northern Territory. (Photo by David Gray/AFP Photo)