Members of security forces secure Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, November 11, 2016. Egypt imposed a big security clampdown in its cities on Friday as mass demonstrations called to protest against austerity measures failed to take place. Riot police and armored vehicles filled the otherwise empty streets of central Cairo, but most people stayed at home. (Photo by Mohamed Abd El Ghany/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 fruit vendor pushes his cart through a flooded street after a heavy rainfall in Lahore on September 21, 2021. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)

A Garba (folk dance) participant gets her back painted with an awareness message on vaccination against the Covid-19 coronavirus during the ongoing Navratri festival in Ahmedabad in western India on October 8, 2021. (Photo by Sam Panthaky/AFP Photo)

A health official checks the body temperature of a burqa-clad woman passenger amid concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus at the Lahore Railway station in Lahore on March 19, 2020. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)

Bystanders look at the wreckage of a bus in Noshki town of Balochistan province on March 17, 2025, a day after an explosives laden car hit one of the seven buses of a convoy, a bombing carried out allegedly by the separatist group Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). Separatists in southwest Pakistan killed at least five paramilitaries and wounded more than 30 on March 16, police told AFP, days after an attack on a train in Balochistan province left dozens dead. (Photo by AFP Photo)

An Afghan man prepares tea for customers at a roadside tea shop on the outskirts of Jalalabad February 2, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Parwiz)

A woman walks in front of an art installation made of artificial fruits and vegetables during the “Moscow Autumn” festival in central Moscow, September 14, 2015. (Photo by Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters)