An aerial view of a man standing on Lake Tuz, Turkiye's second largest lake, during sunset in Ankara, Turkiye on April 22, 2024. The lake, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List with its unique natural structure, welcomes many local and foreign tourists every year as it provides 70 per cent of the country's salt needs. (Photo by Hakan Nural/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Groundsman Darren Cordingley on his way out of the maze on July 11, 2024. Gardeners have had their work cut out after spending a whopping 520 hours trimming one of the world's biggest hedge mazes. It has taken a team of 13 working eight hours a day for five days to tackle the enormous maze at the Longleat estate in Wiltshire, UK. (Photo by Max Willcock/Bournemouth News)

Keen diver Yusuke Fukami fulfilled a personal dream by snapping a cartoon-like Costasiella sea slug while in Bali in the last decade of December 2024. (Photo by Yusuke Fukami/South West News Service)

Girls dressed in Soviet WWII uniforms of traffic control officers as Russian President Vladiimir Putin lays a wreath in the Hall of Military Glory of the Mamayev Kurgan memorial complex commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad to mark the 75th anniversary of the victory in the battle in Volgograd, Russia on February 2, 2018. The battle between Nazi troops and the Soviet Army was a major pivotal moment in the Great Patriotic War and World War II. (Photo by Mikhail Metzel/TASS via Getty Images)

People watch police destroy confiscated illegal firecrackers in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China, January 29, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Zhao Qiang walks across a street in Shenyang, Liaoning province, April 14, 2014. Zhao, a community officer of the China Disabled Persons' Federation, was diagnosed with multiple when he was two, with the resulting tumour affecting the growth of his left leg, his grandmother told local media, citing a doctor's diagnosis. His uncle modified his shoes, fitting them with stools, to allow Zhao to stand and walk. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

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.

Peter Ver Ploeg carries Virginia Petrovek through the mud pit during the North American Wife Carrying Championship, Saturday, October 8, 2016, at the Sunday River Ski Resort in Newry, Maine. (Photo by Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo)