Men play cricket in Kabul, Afghanistan, 16 September 2021. A humanitarian crisis and alleged widespread human rights violations are among the top challenges Afghanistan faces a month after the Taliban's lightning-fast capture of Kabul. The economic crisis threatened to push 97 percent of the 40 million people into poverty by mid-2022, the United Nations has warned. (Photo by EPA/EFE/Stringer)

Sonny Colbrelli of Italy celebrates winning the men's Paris Roubaix, a 258 kilometer (160.3 miles) one-day-race cycling race, at the velodrome in Roubaix, northern France, Sunday, October 3, 2021. (Photo by Vincent Kalut/Pool Photo via AP Photo)

An Afghan girl carries washed clothes on her head in Bamiyan, Afghanistan on March 2, 2023. (Photo by Ali Khara/Reuters)

American DJ, model and YouTube personality Chantel Jeffries is seen on April 01, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

A man walks through floodwater as rain pours in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on November 24, 2025. (Photo by Hasnoor Hussain/Reuters)

Iraqi security forces ride in vehicles travelling to Mosul to fight against militants of Islamic State at an Iraqi army base in Camp Taji in Baghdad, February 21, 2016. (Photo by Ahmed Saad/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.

“The 2008 Sichuan earthquake or the Great Sichuan Earthquake was a deadly earthquake that measured at 8.0 Ms and 7.9 Mw occurred at 14:28:01 CST (06:28 UTC) on Monday, May 12, 2008 in Sichuan province of China, killing an estimated 68,000 people”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A woman cries as she cannot find her 4-year-old daughter and husband on the top of the ruins of a destroyed school in earthquake-hit Beichuan county, Sichuan province, May 17, 2008. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)