Devotees of Santa Muerte visit her shrine in the Tepito neighborhood on the eve of the Day of the Dead in Mexico City, Mexico on October 31, 2022. (Photo by Gustavo Graf/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.

A Pakistani labourer carries bricks on his back at a construction site at a residential area in Islamabad on March 29, 2017. (Photo by Aamir Qureshi/AFP Photo)

An Afghan woman walks with a child in the old city of Herat province, Afghanistan on October 15, 2018. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

A worker of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) collects data for the digital census, in Karachi, Pakistan, 01 March 2023. PBS has launched a digital census and portal to allow citizens to submit their data. The census that began on 01 March, will be used for the upcoming general elections. So far, 4.3 million people have registered. (Photo by Shahzaib Akber/EPA/EFE)

Men slide in the mud during the Boryeong Mud Festival at Daecheon Beach in Boryeong, South Korea, Saturday, July 22, 2017. The 20th annual mud festival features mud wrestling and mud sliding. (Photo by Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

An Afghan boy looks through the scope of a toy gun, as other children ride on swings during the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, in Kabul, Afghanistan June 25, 2017. (Photo by Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

Mary Pickford takes a picture of husband Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., who is executing a handstand on the roof of a building on December 19, 1920. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)