A fire dancer makes a heart shape at the Bealtaine fire festival, marking the beginning of summer at the Hill of Uisneach in Rathnew, Ireland, on May 10, 2025. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

A man walks past kelp as he goes for a swim in the Pacific Ocean at La Jolla Shores, Thursday, July 24, 2025, in San Diego. (Photo by Gregory Bull/AP Photo)

Aerial view of workers repairing fishing nets in preparation for a new round of fishing season on July 27, 2025 in Wenling, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province of China. (Photo by Zhu Haiwei/Zhejiang Daily Press Group/VCG via Getty Images)

Olaf Niess catches swans on the river Alster near the town hall in Hamburg, Germany, 17 November 2015. The Alster swans are moving to their ice-free winter quarters on the Eppendorf Muehlenteich millpond until spring. (Photo by Bodo Marks/EPA)

A boy rides on a snow wagon towed by a robot dressed as a Teddy bear, which only moves forward by moving its legs, during the Ice and snow carnival at Taoranting park in Beijing February 9, 2015. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/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.

People look at a man, who residents said was killed by al Qaeda militants, hanging on a bridge in Yemen's southeastern city of Mukalla June 17, 2015. Al Qaeda militants in Yemen killed two alleged Saudi spies, residents said, accusing them of planting tracking devices which enabled the assassination of the group's leader in a suspected U.S. drone strike. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A Palestinian girl wear a face mask during a lockdown imposed following the discovery of coronavirus cases in the Gaza Strip, Thursday, August 27, 2020. On Wednesday Gaza's Hamas rulers extended a full lockdown in the Palestinian enclave for three more days as coronavirus cases climbed after the detection this week of the first community transmissions of the virus in the densely populated, blockaded territory. (Photo by Hatem Moussa/AP Photo)