A young woman looks at her smartphone sitting in front of a mannequin use to keep social distancing at a Chinese cuisine restaurant in Tokyo, Japan, 27 July 2020. Japan's total number of COVID-19 cases crossed the 30,000 line showing the new coronavirus pandemic is spreading across the country and not only in Tokyo and Osaka megalopolis. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)

Believers bathe in the icy water during a traditional Epiphany at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Ostankino near TV Tower in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, January 18, 2023. Across Russia, the devout and the daring are observing the Orthodox Christian feast day of Epiphany by immersing themselves in frigid water through holes cut through the ice of lakes and rivers. Epiphany celebrates the revelation of Jesus Christ as the incarnation of God through his baptism in the River Jordan. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

Annabelle, 13, and her sister Estelle, 10, both artistic gymnasts from Borna, hang from the rings during their training, ahead of the Special Olympics World Games Berlin 2023, the world's largest sports movement for people with intellectual disabilities, at the Federal base for competitive gymnastic artistics in Chemnitz, Germany on May 6, 2023. (Photo by Annegret Hilse/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 general view shows the part of the skyline of Dubai covered in an early morning fog on October 5, 2015. (Photo by Rene Slama/AFP Photo)

Children play on an abandoned car near a protest, which is against the dissolution of Yemen's parliament and the Shi'ite Muslim Houthi militia's tightening grip on power, in the southwestern city of Taiz, February 13, 2015. (Photo by Mohamed al-Sayaghi/Reuters)

A Libyan fireman stands in front of smoke and flames rising from an oil storage tank at an oil facility in northern Libya's Ras Lanouf region on January 23, 2016, after it was set ablaze earlier in the week following attacks launched by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists to seize key port terminals. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

The northeastern United States sweltered this week in a scorching summer heat wave, complete with stagnant, sticky air and no winds for relief, forecasters said. Even in a summer already filled with stretches of very hot weather, this week will be stubbornly brutal, with no relief in sight until the weekend brings thunderstorms to the region, they said. "Plain and simple, this week may feel the worst of any week for this summer in the Northeast," said Accuweather.com meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. (Reuters)