Chinese honor guards prepare for the arrival of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Wednesday, June 14, 2023. (Photo by Jade Gao/Pool Photo via AP Photo)

Paris Saint-Germain's Italian goalkeeper #01 Gianluigi Donnarumma and Salzburg's Serbian forward #21 Petar Ratkov vie for the ball during the UEFA Champions League football match between FC RB Salzburg and Paris Saint-Germain in Salzburg, Austria on December 10, 2024. (Photo by Franck Fife/AFP 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.

Sculptures entitled “The Rising Tide” by British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor are seen beside the River Thames in front of the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye ferris wheel in London, September 3, 2015. The representations of four horses and riders are fully visible at low tide but become immersed underwater twice a day as the Thames rises to reach full tide. The installation will be on display throughout September as part of the annual Totally Thames festival. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

“Igor Sikorsky (May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972), born Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky was a Russian American pioneer of aviation in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. He designed and flew the world's first multi-engine fixed-wing aircraft, the Russky Vityaz in 1913, and the first airliner, Ilya Muromets, in 1914. After immigrating to the United States in 1919, Sikorsky founded the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in 1923, and developed the first of Pan American Airways' ocean-conquering flying boats in the 1930s. In 1939 Sikorsky designed and flew the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300, the first viable American helicopter, which pioneered the rotor configuration used by most helicopters today. Sikorsky would modify the design into the Sikorsky R-4, which became the world's first mass-produced helicopter in 1942”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Westland Sikorsky H-5's, used by British European Airways Helicopters, which fly between London and Birmingham. The Sikorsky H-5, (aka R-5, S-51, HO3S-1, or Horse) (R-5 until 1948; company designation VS-327) is a helicopter built by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, formerly used by the United States Air Force, and its predecessor, the United States Army Air Forces, as well as the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard (with the designations HO2S and HO3S). (Photo by Harrison /Topical Press Agency/Getty Images). 22nd May 1951

“The saguaro (scientific name Carnegiea gigantea) is a large, tree-sized cactus species in the monotypic genus Carnegiea. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in the U.S. state of Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, a small part of Baja California in the San Felipe Desert and an extremely small area of California, U.S. The saguaro blossom is the State Wildflower of Arizona”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Daniel Appel (L), a firefighter with Engine 84 from the Lassen National Forest in California and Mike Hallen, (R), Arizona representative of the National Register of Big Trees, measure the circumference of this Saguaro cactus called the "Grand One," in the Tonto National Forest on July 1, 2005 35 miles north of Phoenix, near Carefree, Arizona. The cactus, estimated to be more than 200 years old, measures a circumference of 7 feet, 10 inches (2.4 meters) and stands 46 feet high (14 meters). The cactus was burned in the Cave Creek Complex fire and may not survive. It was once the largest Saguaro in the world, two others have been found recently that have tied it's measurements. The fire has burned more than 214,000 acres of the Sonoran desert. (Photo by Jeff Topping/Getty Images)

Faruk, 17, a Rohingya refugee trader holds betel leaves which are on sale at a stall in Palong Khali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, November 3, 2017. He left his village in Myanmar when the military opened fire towards the Rohingya. “I buy this betel leaf from Palong Khali market, in one bundle there are 160 pieces, I buy it for 80 taka and I sell it for 100 taka (1 Bangladeshi Taka = 0.012 US Dollar). Bangladeshi's and I sell for the same rate in the camp. Outside in the local market it is 80 taka per bundle. My problem is that I don't have money so I can't buy anything to eat, I can't buy fish to eat”, he said. (Photo by Hannah McKay/Reuters)

A homeless girl asks for alms outside a coffee shop in Mumbai, India, June 24, 2016. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)