A man and his son ride a horse at Tahrir Square in Sanaa, Yemen on January 21, 2021. (Photo by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)

Aerialists Luka Owen and Daniel Connor perform with a Fork Lift Truck to mark the handover of the former Daimler Car Factory to Imagineer by the Wigley Group on April 14, 2021 in Coventry, England. The building will include a sound recording studio and edit suite, as well as a Sprung Dance Floor and Vertical Dance Wall. As well as providing a home for Imagineer’s innovative education and training programmes aimed at young people and people with disabilities. (Photo by Darren Staples/Getty Images)

This aerial picture taken on June 29, 2024 shows fishing boats moored at a beach in Danang, central Vietnam. (Photo by Dale De La Rey/AFP Photo)

People use large water guns to spray each other as they celebrate the annual Songkran festival in Bangkok, Thailand on April 14, 2025. Thailand celebrated the Thai traditional New Year, called Songkran in Thai and also known as ëthe water festivalí, on 13 April, with festivities going on on throughout the weekend. During Songkran, people celebrate the New Year by splashing water to each other as a sign of washing away sins and bad luck from the previous year. People across Thailand celebrate the New Year with parties and water related activities throughout the weekend. (Photo by Diego Azubel/Matrix Images)

Dancers pose for a photo as they prepare during Festival Cilung or “Love the Environment” Festival, where boats made from recycled materials, mostly plastic bottles, sail on the Ciliwung River, one of the most polluted rivers in the world, to raise public awareness about river pollution, in Jakarta, Indonesia, on September 28, 2025. (Photo by Willy Kurniawan/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 participant wearing a costume poses for members of the public before the 40th anniversary of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade in central Sydney, Australia, March 3, 2018. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

A Colombian air force helicopter retrieves the bodies of victims from the wreckage of a plane that crashed into the Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense onboard near Medellin, Colombia, November 29, 2016. The chartered plane was carrying a Brazilian soccer team to the biggest match of its history when it crashed into a Colombian hillside and broke into pieces, killing 75 people and leaving six survivors, Colombian officials said Tuesday. (Photo by Jaime Saldarriaga/Reuters)