A girl splashes water over a boy amidst soaring temperatures at the Shati camp for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City on July 17, 2023. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP Photo)

Gigi Hadid, American fashion designer Jeremy Scott and Bella Hadid pose backstage of the Moschino fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2022/2023 on February 24, 2022 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)

Palestinians fleeing Khan Yunis arrive in Rafah with their belongings in a damaged car on February 15, 2024, as battles raged in the sourthern Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP Photo)

Ko Min, 26, manually extracts oil from one of three 300 feet deep wells he works on in the Minhla township of the Magwe district October 27, 2013. Everyday, Ko Min makes around $30 extracting crude oil from three small wells after he bought rights to use them for close to $1000 from a farmer who owns the land. In Myanmar, an impoverished country rich with natural resources, people from poor communities find ways to supplement their income by exploiting such resources, such as the Minhla township, traditionally rich with oil, often using primitive and dangerous methods. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Military chaplain Yurii looks on in a trench after an Orthodox Easter service for Ukrainian servicemen at their position, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine on April 15, 2023. (Photo by Sofiia Gatilova/Reuters)

Monster girl Crazy Sa-ya, an iconic Harajuku girl and a staff member of the cafe, wearing a face mask poses for a photograph at Kawaii Monster Cafe, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan on January 31, 2021. (Photo by Issei Kato/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 member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) pose for a picture at a camp in the Colombian mountains on February 2005. (Photo by Frank Piasecki Poulsen)