Italian actress Zaina Dridi walks the red carpet for “Carol” during the 10th Rome Film Fest at Auditorium Parco Della Musica on October 22, 2015 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by PA Press Association Images)

A skater observes pancakes snow on the frozen Lake des Rousses in Les Rousses, central-eastern France, on January 1, 2025. This phenomenon forms when slushy ice in water clumps into round, pancake-like shapes due to waves or currents. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP Photo)

Elementary school children play outside their classrooms as mount Sinabung volcano spews thick volcanic ash in the background on February 10, 2017 in Karo, Indonesia. Mount Sinabung is one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia and last erupted in May 2016, killing seven people. (Photo by Albert Damanik/Barcroft Images)

A man crosses a mud-covered trail carrying his wife on his back at a flooded Han River park in Seoul, South Korea, August 4, 2020. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

A demonstrator argues with policewomen after she turned up her shirt and was taken out from a protest to demand the resignation of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, on March 13, 2016 in Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo. Protesters, many draped in the Brazilian national flag, poured into the streets of Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at the start of mass demonstrations seeking to bring down President Dilma Rousseff. Authorities in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city and an opposition stronghold, said they were bracing for a million protesters. (Photo by Miguel Schincariol/AFP Photo)

Dancers from the “Legend Lin Dance Theatre” perform the artistic director and choreographer Li-chen Lin's classic works “Hymne aux Fleurs qui Passent, Anthem to the Fading Flowers” during a rehearsal at the National Theater Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, August 18, 2015. “Hymne aux Fleurs Qui Passent” pays tribute to the cycle of the year and the complementary principles of Yin and Yang whose eternal struggle provides the driving force behind the changing of the seasons. (Photo by Chiang Ying-ying/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.

Nepalese Hindu priests perform rituals during Janai Purnima festival at Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, August 18, 2016. During this festival Hindus take holy baths and perform annual change of the Janai, a sacred cotton string worn around their chest or tied on the wrist, in the belief that it will protect and purify them. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)