A damaged wooden garden house is seen amid a field of wheat following floods caused by heavy rainfalls, in Bad Bodendorf, Germany, July 18, 2021. (Photo by Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

This photograph taken on June 8, 2021 shows a street vendor walking past narrow residential houses, known as “nha ong” in Vietnamese or “tube houses”, in an urban area of Hanoi. (Photo by Manan Vatsyayana/AFP Photo)

A Vietnamese cosplayer poses as police officer character from the game during the League of Legends (LOL) Mid-Season Invitational 2019 play-in group stage, in GG Stadium, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam May 5, 2019. (Photo by Reuters/Kham)

A woman instructs a boy on how to pose for pictures in front of a mural depicting Soviet pilot Valery Chkalov – who took a non-stop flight over the Arctic and landed in the US state of Washington in 1937 – at Chkalovskaya metro station in Moscow on August 14, 2019. (Photo by Yuri Kadobnov/AFP Photo)

An elephant enjoys its back being scrubbed by the keeper on March 1, 1950. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

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.

Old Heidelberg, Dog with Pipe, 1905. (Photo by Detroit Publishing Company)

Rescuers work to put out fire outside a damaged residential building hit by recent shelling in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine on November 7, 2023. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)