A worker heats a glass cat-shape ornament at the Silverado manufacture of hand-blown Christmas ornaments in town of Jozefow outside Warsaw December 2, 2014. (Photo by Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

A Thai jockey competes during an annual water buffalo race in Chonburi Province, south of Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, October 26, 2015. The annual race is a celebration among rice farmers before harvest. (Photo by Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo)

Members of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's special battalion Kiev-1 rescue a hostage, who was detained by a mock terroist, during an anti-terror drill in Kiev, Ukraine, August 28, 2015. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

Internally displaced Syrian children stand at the entrance of their makeshift shelter that is an underground cave in Om al-Seer, southern Idlib countryside, Syria December 26, 2015. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/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.

In this handout artists impression provided by the Russia 2018 Organising Commitee, the Rostov on Don Stadium is shown as proposed and presented as part of the Russia 2018 World Cup bid, on September 29, 2011 in Russia. (Illustration by Russia 2018 via Getty Images)

A woman jumps over a puddle as she crosses a street after a torrential downpour in the South Beach part of Miami, July 18, 2014. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

“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)