“Show us our butts! Mucawana tribe – Angola. In Soba village, the Muhacaona (Mucawana) tribe, perhaps the best place i have visited. They use cow dung and fat to make this so nice haircut, and love the beads. They asked me to make pictures of their backs... and butts to see on the camera screen if everything was perfect!”. (Photo and comments by Eric Lafforgue)

Two orphaned wallaby joeys enjoy a play date to help them boost their social skills in Australia early July 2023. The rescued joeys are being hand-raised at Aussie Ark in News South Wales. (Photo by Aussie Ark/Cover Images)

American model and media personality Kendall Jenner attends the Gucci women's Spring Summer 2024 collection presented in Milan, Italy, Friday, September 22, 2023. (Photo by Luca Bruno/AP Photo)

New Yorkers celebrate Joe Biden winning the presidency at Washington Square Park on November 7, 2020. (Photo by Amy Lombard for NBC)

Britain's Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock wears Union Jack socks as he leaves with Britain's Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Evans after a cabinet meeting on Downing Street in London, Britain on January 7, 2020. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

A Raramuris indigenous woman takes part in the “Ultra maraton de los Canones 2017” (Ultra marathon of the Canyons), at La Sinforosa Canyon, in Guachochi, Chihuahua state, Mexico on July 15, 2017. More than 600 participants from different countries take part in the 63 and 100 kilometers races, along the Tarahumara mountain range. (Photo by Herika Martinez/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.

A boy runs with a burning barrel soaked in tar at the annual Ottery St Mary tar barrel festival on November 5, 2015 in Ottery St. Mary, England. The tradition, which is over 400 years old, sees competitors (who must have been born in the town to take part) running with burning barrels on their backs through the village, until the heat becomes too unbearable or the barrel breaks down, starting with junior barrels carried by children and continuing all evening with ever larger and larger barrels. The event, which has been threatened with closure on previous years due to increasing public liability insurance costs, raises thousands of pounds for charity and attracts spectators from around the world. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)