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.

Farmers use tractors and burn tires, hay and manure as they block the highway between Morlaix and Brest during a demonstration against the market prices of their product, on July 22, 2015 in Morlaix, western of France. French farmers protesting over falling food prices threatened to step up blockades of cities, roads and tourist sites, as the government prepared to unveil emergency aid for them. Farmers have dumped manure in cities, blocked access roads and motorways and hindered tourists from reaching Mont St-Michel in northern France, one of France's most visited sites. (Photo by Fred Tanneau/AFP Photo)

A combination photo shows some of the colourful doors seen in Rabat's Medina and Kasbah of the Udayas, September 2014. UNESCO made Rabat a World Heritage Site two years ago and media and tour operators call it a “must-see destination”. But it seems the tourist hordes have yet to find out. While visitors are getting squeezed through the better-known sites of Marrakesh and Fez, the old part of Rabat - with its beautiful Medina and Kasbah of the Udayas - remains an almost unspoiled oasis of calm. Smaller and more compact, its labyrinths of streets, passages and dead ends are a treasure trove of shapes and colours, of moments begging to be caught by the photographer's lens. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

A wounded Afghan policeman is carried away from the site of an explosion in Kabul May 24, 2013. Several large explosions rocked a busy area in the centre of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Friday with Reuters witnesses describing shooting in the area. (Photo by Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

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The main entrance and blast door at the nuclear bunker site on the Woodside Road industrial estate on February 4, 2016 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. The underground shelter has been put up for sale by the offices of the Northern Ireland First and Deputy First Minister. The bunker which was completed in 1990 was built to hold up to 235 people in the event of a nuclear bomb and is complete with kitchen facilities, dormitories and decontamination chambers. The site, one of approximately 1,600 nuclear monitoring posts built in the UK since 1955, is on the housing market with an asking price of £575,000. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Partially constructed notched burial plots are seen at the construction site of an underground tunnel designated for traditional Jewish burial at the Givat Shaul cemetery, on May 14, 2015, in Jerusalem, Israel. Underground cemetery being built by the Israeli Burial Society in Jerusalem due to a decrease in available land for traditional Jewish burials. (Photo by David Vaaknin/The Washington Post)

A sauna building sits above the clouds at 9,280 feet (2,752 meters) at the Rifugio Lagazuoi in the Dolomite Mountains near Cortina d' Ampezzo in northern Italy July 17, 2015. The Dolomites are home to the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park and were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in August, 2009. (Photo by Bob Strong/Reuters)

Church members pray at the Dolieb Hill Presbyterian Church in the Protection of Civilians (POC) site at the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) compound in Malakal, South Sudan on Saturday, July 9, 2016. (Photo by Jane Hahn/The Washington Post)