A pink elephant balloon, one of the entries in the Canadian Hot Air Balloon Championships, lands in a field in High River September 27, 2013. The event is a qualifier for the World Hot Air Balloon Championships in Sao Paulo in 2014. (Photo by Mike Sturk/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.

Britain's Chris Froome, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, is followed by Spain's Alberto Losada, Italy's Vincenzo Nibali and Spain's Alejandro Valverde as they speed downhill during the seventeenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 161 kilometers (100 miles) with start in Digne-les-Bains and finish in Pra Loup, France, Wednesday, July 22, 2015. (Photo by Christophe Ena/AP Photo)

People help a wounded person after Yishai Schlissel, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, attacked people with a knife during a gay pride parade in Jerusalem on Thursday, July 30, 2015. Schlissel lunged into a group of revelers leading Jerusalem's annual gay pride parade and stabbed several of them Thursday evening as they marched in the holy city, Israeli police and witnesses said. (Photo by Sebastian Scheiner/AP Photo)

Iggy Azalea shares a joke with Andy Lee and Hamish Blake during Bonds 100th birthday celebration event at Cafe Sydney on August 19, 2015 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

Emma Coburn (L) and Colleen Quigley of the U.S. look at the scoreboard after competing in the women's 3,000 metres steeplechase final during the 15th IAAF World Championships at the National Stadium in Beijing, China August 26, 2015. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

Two women cry in grief after armed assailants in a motorcycle shot their loved one in a main thoroughfare on July 23, 2016 in Manila, Philippines. The victim was an alleged drug peddler a claim disputed by his wife and maintained her husband is nothing more than a pedicab driver plying his trade when he was shot in front of her. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared a war on crime and drugs after winning the presidential elections on May 9, 2016. President Duterte has recently been living up to his nickname, “The Punisher”, as Philippine police have been conducting night time drug raids on almost a daily basis. (Photo by Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images)

in Qayyarah, about 31 miles (50 km) south of Mosul, Iraq, Sunday, October 23, 2016.in Qayyarah, some 50 kilometers south of Mosul, Iraq, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016. Islamic State fighters torched a sulfur plant south of Mosul, sending a cloud of toxic fumes into the air that mingled with oil wells the militants had lit on fire to create a smoke screen. (Photo by Marko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo)