A model presents a creation by Chinese designer Hu Sheguang from Sheguang Hu collection at China Fashion Week in Beijing, March 31, 2016. (Photo by Jason Lee/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.

This photo taken on April 16, 2014 shows ethnic Kayan women wearing traditional clothes and bronze rings around tbeir neck in Panpet village, Demoso township in Kayah state, eastern Myanmar. Some ethnic Kayan women, also known as Padaung, begin wearing the bronze rings on their neck and legs from a young age. Usually they start wearing six to ten rings when they are five to ten-years-old and then they put on one more ring a year for years after then. (Photo by Ye Aung Thu/AFP Photo)

U.S. Army soldiers carry an injured soldier who was shot in the leg, through a poppy field on April 24, 2011 in the Arghandab River Valley, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. The injured was evacuated to a waiting Blackhawk UH-60A helicopter by Task Force Thunder Brigade, Charlie company 1st of the 52nd Aviation regiment from Fairbanks, Alaska. It is feared that as weather improves with the approaching summer that the casualty toll will rise. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Tibetan monks in ghoulish costumes perform during a ceremony to chase away the “demon king” to bring peace and happiness for the Tibetan New Year at the Yonghegong Lama Temple in Beijing, Sunday, February 19, 2023. The annual event has returned after China lifted all bans on public gatherings from the outbreak of COVID-19. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)

Farmers plant rice seedlings in a paddy in Karanganyar, near Solo, Central Java, Indonesia in this April 13, 2016 photo taken by Antara Foto. (Photo by Maulana Surya/Reuters/Antara Foto)

A policewoman tries to stop an anti-Occupy protester from breaking a police cordon to charge at pro-democracy protesters during a confrontation in Hong Kong October 13, 2014. Hundreds of unidentified people, some wearing masks, tried to break down protest barriers in the heart of Hong Kong's business district on Monday, scuffling with protesters who have occupied the streets for the past two weeks. (Photo by Bobby Yip/Reuters)

A tattoo is displayed on the arm of a girl during Bandung Body Art Festival at in Bandung, West Java, on December 7, 2014. Upon its establishment in 2010, founders of the Bandung Body Art Festival sought to celebrate an art form that was once taboo and associated with criminals. Tattoos are now an increasingly acceptable part of Indonesia’s urban landscape, and the annual event this year continued its campaign with 45 tattoo artists offering their services for free at the Ganesha Cultural Center. (Photo by Rezza Estily/JG Photo)