In this March 19, 2016 photo, Kay Pike transforms herself using body paint and latex into Superman while live streaming at her home in Calgary, Alberta. Pike refers to all her creations as her “little paint children”. She said it would be boring and lonely to do the painting without an audience. (Photo by Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP Photo)

Haitians dressed in costumes dance during the Haitian National Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti, 19 February 2017. Locals and foreigners gathered to enjoy the colorful carnival in which parades are full of art, music and dance. (Photo by Bahare Khodabande/EPA)

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.

Hadeel, 10, asks a passerby for help to pay a medical bill as her father Shahrour, 54, sits in his wheelchair in the Douma neighbourhood of Damascus Syria February 3, 2016. Shahrour said he developed diabetes at the beginning of the war in Syria. A lack of insulin led to his medical condition worsening and his right foot had to be amputated. Recently he also suffered a stroke that paralysed half his face. He and part of his extended family, a total of 18 people, live together and struggle to get by. (Photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)

When wedding photographer Katie Yeaton saw that one of her dogs had white fur and the other had black-and-white fur, she did what only a wedding photographer could do: she threw them a backyard wedding complete with professional photography to remember the day. (Photo by Katie Yeaton)

In this photograph taken on June 28, 2015, a hiker in Hong Kong takes a picture of the city from a walking trail. The southern Chinese territory is crisscrossed by more than 180 miles of designated hiking trails. (Photo by Alex Ogle/AFP Photo)

Guests on the terrace of Shepheard's Hotel, Cairo, circa 1940. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Visitors attend a press preview of the 2012 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art on February 27, 2012 in New York City. The contemporary art exhibition includes sculpture, photography, painting, installations, dance, theater, film and music and runs from March 1 through May 27. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)