Romanian riot police detain a man, face covered in blood, after minor clashes erupted during a protest in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, February 2, 2017. Brief clashes broke out between protesters and police in Romania¹s capital, as tens of thousands of people protested for the second night a government decision to decriminalise official misconduct. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

A 10-year-old pet goldfish named George undergoes veterinarian Tristan Rich's scalpel to remove a life-threatening head tumor in this handout picture taken September 11, 2014 and provided to Reuters by the Lort Smith Animal Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. In a 45-minute long procedure described by Rich as “fiddly”, the fish was sedated by water laced with anaesthetic, the tumour removed and the wound sealed with tissue glue followed by antibiotics and painkillers. (Photo by Reuters/Lort Smith Animal Hospital)

In this July 17, 2015 photo, Michael Chilton squeezes into a corner of his car to make a quick repair to some body panels after he ran into a wall during dirt track racing in the late model division at the Ponderosa Speedway in Junction City, Ky. He banged up the car in the qualifying round and had a few minutes to fix it before the final race. (Photo by David Stephenson/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.

A general view of the Drax Power Station, illuminated in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, in North Yorkshire, Britain on April 1, 2022. (Photo by Lee Smith/Reuters)

An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier assigned to the Mobile Strike Force Kandak fires a RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launcher during a live-fire exercise supervised by the Marines with the Mobile Strike Force Advisor Team on Camp Shorabak, Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 20, 2013. The Marines with the Mobile Strike Force Advisor Team instructed and mentored their ANA counterparts on how to properly utilize their weapons systems. (Photo by SSgt Ezekiel R. Kitandwe/RCT 7)

The Flying Bull's P-38 Lockheed Lightning N25Y / 13 – Red Bull – Flying Legends Airshow 2012 Duxford (Photo by Rob Lovesey)

Members of the police forces of Republic of Srpska march during a parade marking the 30th anniversary of the Republic of Srpska in Banja Luka, northern Bosnia, Sunday, January 9, 2022. This week Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik was slapped with new U.S. sanctions for alleged corruption. Dodik maintains the West is punishing him for championing the rights of ethnic Serbs in Bosnia – a dysfunctional country of 3.3 million that's never truly recovered from a fratricidal war in the 1990s that became a byname for ethnic cleansing and genocide. (Photo by Radivoje Pavicic/AP Photo)