“Leopard Hunting a Stork”. “One-shot capture. I watched the leopard stalking the stork, I only had time to focus at 400mm, no time to change to high speed, I watched the stork, and as soon as it flapped its wings, I shot one shot”. (Photo by Paul Rifkin/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest)

Staff prepare for Halloween at the Forbidden Corner tourist attraction, a labyrinth in the heart of Tupgill Park, in the Yorkshire Dales on October 19, 2022. (Photo by James Glossop/The Times)

A female participant of the Bela Negara – “defend the nation” – programme applies camouflage face paint on another participant's face at a training centre in Rumpin, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia June 2, 2016. (Photo by Darren Whiteside/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.

Young gymnasts practice pull-up on a bar at a gymnasium of a sports school in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province April 11, 2015. (Photo by William Hong/Reuters)

In this photo taken Wednesday, December 5, 2018, a woman who scavenges recyclable materials from garbage for a living is seen through a cloud of smoke from burning trash, surrounded by Marabou storks who feed on the garbage, at the dump in the Dandora slum of Nairobi, Kenya. As the world meets again to tackle the growing threat of climate change, how the continent tackles the growing solid waste produced by its more than 1.2 billion residents, many of them eager consumers in growing economies, is a major question in the fight against climate change. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A spectator shows off her green, white and gold eyelashes as the annual Saint Patrick's day parade takes place on March 17, 2018 in Dublin, Ireland. Dublin hosts the largest Saint Patrick's day parade in the world with a route spanning 2.5 km. The Irish annals for the fifth century date Patrick's arrival in Ireland in the year 432 with the patron saint of Ireland's remains believed to be buried at Down Cathedral in County Down. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

A devotee smiles as she offers prayers during the Swasthani Brata Katha festival in Kathmandu, Nepal January 12, 2017. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)