A woman reacts during the annual “Tomatina” tomato fight fiesta, in the village of Bunol near Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, August 27, 2025. (Photo by Alberto Saiz/AP Photo)

A protester is sprayed by a Department of Homeland Security officer outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Thursday, October 2, 2025, in Portland, Ore. (Photo by Jenny Kane/AP Photo)

Drivers merge onto expressway lanes after passing through the Wuzhuang toll station at Chuzhou, in China's eastern Anhui province, as they make their way back home on the second-to-last day of an eight-day National Day holiday on October 7, 2025. The Wuzhuang toll station, located on the border between Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, is China's largest expressway toll station, with a total of 36 lanes. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

Drag king Riss Obolensky performs as drag king Norman Creebs during the Opening Cabaret at The London Clown Festival in London, Britain, on July 8, 2024. (Photo by Hollie Adams/Reuters)

Once upon a time a myth was born that insects, unlike animals, are just a machines that not capable of learning and survive only based on their instincts. That myth has become the widespread opinion. Of course, this opinion is indeed erroneous, like many other widespread opinions. Let us try to find out which part is a myth and which part is true.

Girls accompany grooms as they sit separate from the brides during a mass wedding for 150 couples in Beit Lahiya town in the northern Gaza Strip July 20, 2015. The wedding was funded by al-Basheer Society for Relief and Development. (Photo by Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

Apollo 9 Command/Service Modules (CSM) nicknamed “Gumdrop” and Lunar Module (LM), nicknamed “Spider” are shown docked together as Command Module pilot David R. Scott stands in the open hatch. Astronaut Russell L. Schweickart, Lunar Module pilot, took this photograph of Scott during his EVA as he stood on the porch outside the Lunar Module. Apollo 9 was an Earth orbital mission designed to test docking procedures between the CSM and LM as well as test fly the Lunar Module in the relative safe confines of Earth orbit. (Photo by NASA)

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.