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.

South Korean university students prepare for an establishment ceremony of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) for female cadets at Sookmyung Women's University on December 10, 2010 in Seoul, South Korea. The South Korean defense ministry has agreed to admit women into it's college-based Reserve Officers' Training Program for the first time since the program began in 1963. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

In this March 7, 1991 file photo, a U.S. Marine patrol walks across the charred oil landscape near a burning well during perimeter security patrol near Kuwait City. Twenty five years after the first U.S. Marines swept across the border into Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War, American forces find themselves battling the extremist Islamic State group, born out of al-Qaida, in the splintered territories of Iraq and Syria. The Arab allies that joined the 1991 coalition are fighting their own conflicts both at home and abroad, as Iran vies for greater regional power following a nuclear deal with world powers. (Photo by John Gaps III/AP Photo)

There are so many little, seemingly simple, yet ingenious things that make our life so much simpler. Take scotch tape for example. It’s just a roll of thin plastic film that is sticky on one side, yet how much simpler it made the packaging process of various goods! However, the removal of scotch tape, now there is a problem. Unless you have something sharp, it’s nearly impossible to tear it. To combat this, a brand new product has come out. Rip cord tape – is a regular scotch tape combined with a rip cord. The manufacturer of this product claims that it will make the removal of scotch tape much easier. However, when we look at the pictures, we realize, that yes, the rip cord will remove the middle of the scotch tape; however, the sides will remain in place! This will once again present a problem during the removal process.

In this publication you can see some best pictures of photographer Chris Hondros, who was killed on April 20, 2011 by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) in Misrata, Libya.

Photo: “Getty Images” photographer Chris Hondros (1970–2011) walks the ruins of a building August 21, 2006 in southern Beirut, Lebanon. (Photo by Getty Images)

Anti-balaka militia originally sprang up to protect the Christian population of the Central African Republic, but now stand accused of human rights abuses themselves. Last month, the African Union branded militia targeting Muslims in Central African Republic as “terrorists” and said they would be treated as enemy combatants, a day after killing a Congolese peacekeeper and amid deepening international frustration at continuing violence in the impoverished and landlocked country. Photo: A female member of the anti-balaka, a Christian militia, patrols with other militiamen outside village of Zawa April 8, 2014. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

In this handout image provided by Ogilvy, a burger made from cultured beef, which has been developed by Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands (pictured) is shown to the media during a press conference on August 5, 2013 in London, England. The in-vitro burger, cultured from cattle stem cells, the first example of what its creator says could provide an answer to global food shortages and help combat climate change, was fried in a pan and tasted by two volunteers. The burger is the result of years of research by Dutch scientist Mark Post, a vascular biologist at the University of Maastricht, who is working to show how meat grown in petri dishes might one day be a true alternative to meat from livestock.The meat in the burger has been made by knitting together around 20,000 strands of protein that has been cultured from cattle stem cells in Post's lab. (Photo by David Parry)

Garbage pickers collect ride on donkey cart while looking for recyclable materials at a rubbish dump in the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, August 23, 2016. Despite its huge untapped oil and gas reserves and steadily rising oil output and revenue, 23 percent of the population live below the poverty line, according to the Ministry of Planning. (Photo by Khalid al Mousily/Reuters)