People swim underwater at Clovelly Beach on December 14, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. A severe heat wave hit Sydney over the weekend, a precursor of hot and dry conditions expected for the rest of the summer which will also bring heightened bushfire risk. The mercury rose to alarming levels again on Thursday. (Photo by Jenny Evans/Getty Images)

Children walk behind their Morrocoye, a terrestrial tortoise native to South America, before a tortoise race held to celebrate the upcoming feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, in the town of San Francisco de Asis, Venezuela, on October 3, 2025. (Photo by /Juan Carlos Hernandez/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.

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

Iraqi security forces ride in vehicles travelling to Mosul to fight against militants of Islamic State at an Iraqi army base in Camp Taji in Baghdad, February 21, 2016. (Photo by Ahmed Saad/Reuters)

Afghan vendors sort out oranges for sale at a wholesale market in the Bati kot district in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, 04 December 2020. The orange fruit floods markets across Afghanistan due to bumper crop in the winter season. Oranges are rich in vitamin C, which may reduce severity of the common cold. (Photo by Ghulamullah Habibi/EPA/EFE)

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)