Casket of Leibby Kletzky, a murdered eight-year-old boy who went missing from the Hasidic neighborhood of Borough Park, Brooklyn is carried during a procession on July 13, 2011 in New York City. After a two day search Kletzky's dismembered body was found partially in a suitcase inside a dumpster and partially in a refrigerator in a nearby apartment. Police detectives have taken Levi Aron, 35, into custody in connection to the killing. (Photo by Ramin Talaie/Getty Images)

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.

Cat lounges and makes itself at home at the new Cat Café by Purina ONE on Wednesday, April 23, 2014 in New York. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Invision for Purina ONE/AP Images)

This photo provided by Red Antler Processing shows the alligator sport hunting team made up of, from left, Tanner White, tag-holder Donald Woods, Will Thomas and Joey Clark as they hoist, with the help of a forklift, the longest alligator officially harvested in Mississippi, Saturday, August 26, 2023, at Red Antler Processing in Yazoo City, Miss. The male alligator weighed 802.5 pounds and measured 14 feet, 3 inches long, and its length broke the state record as the longest alligator ever caught, according to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. (Phoot by Shane Smith/Red Antler Processing via AP Photo)

Passengers from the ferry sinking off South Korea's southern coast are rescued by the South Korean Coast guard in the water off the southern coast near Jindo, south of Seoul, on April 16, 2014. Almost 300 people were missing after a ferry sank off South Korea on Wednesday, the coastguard said, in what could be the country's biggest peacetime disaster in nearly 20 years. (Photo by AP Photo)

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.

“Rescuers were digging through mud and debris Friday to retrieve more bodies strewn across a farming valley in the southern Philippines by a powerful typhoon. The death toll from the storm has surpassed 500, with more than 400 people missing”. – Bullit Marquez via Associated Press

Photo: Children look at the a damaged road destroyed by flash floods at the height of Typhoon Bopha in the village of Andap, New Bataan town, Compostela Valley province, December 5, 2012. (Photo by Ted Aljibe)

Japan Self-Defense Force members pay their respect to unidentified earthquake victims in vehicles during a mess funeral on April 8, 2011 in Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The 9.0 magnitude strong earthquake struck offshore on March 11 at 2:46pm local time, triggering a tsunami wave of up to ten metres which engulfed large parts of north-eastern Japan, and also damaging the Fukushima nuclear plant and threatening a nuclear catastrophe. The death toll continues to rise with numbers of dead and missing exceeding 20,000 in a tragedy not seen since World War II in Japan. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)