Dogs of War: The Bomb-Sniffing K9s Still at Work in the Middle East

The War in Afghanistan became America’s longest several years ago, and troops are still deployed — and dying — overseas. The Washington Post reports that 8,500 troops remain in Afghanistan, despite former President Obama officially ending the U.S. military’s combat mission in the country. Dogs are employed alongside soldiers to serve not only practically — they can sniff out explosives, identify the presence of illegal drugs and help find any missing comrades — but as loyal companions in a war that has no clear end in sight. Take a look at them below.

U.S. Marines from 1st Battalion, 8th Marines fire at alleged Taliban fighters as their dog Miely run around outside new Mirage base, on the south of Musa Qala District, Helmand province on February 4, 2011. (DMITRY KOSTYUKOV/AFP/Getty Images)

Basco from Patrol Explosive Detector Dog (PEDD) of US Airforce refuses to go inside a tunnel as US sergeant Matthew Templet from 627 Security Forces Squadron, Joint Base Lewis McChord coax him to seek for possible explosives in an abandoned house in Loya Derah village during a clearance patrol in Zari district of Kandahar province on December 28, 2010. (BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)

A US Marine from 1st Battalion, 8th Marines plays with a trained dog at Shagali patrol base, in Musa Qala District, Helmand province on February 3, 2011. Each trained dog used for special purposes in the military can cost 70,000 USD upwards. (DMITRY KOSTYUKOV/AFP/Getty Images)

British airmen from 51 Squadron RAF Regiment and a dog handler stop a car as they conduct a dawn airborne counter-insurgency patrol on February 9, 2009, in Basra, Iraq. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

US Marine Corporal Adrian Luevano (back) from 2nd Marine 8 Batallion (2/8) Fox Company throws an object to play catch with Sergeant Rush the bomb detection dog at Camp Hansen, in Marjah, Helman Province, on May 3, 2011. (Bay Ismoyo/AFP/Getty Images)

Debbie, the bomb-sniffing Norweigan ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) dog from Recce Squadron 3 checks a vehicle for explosives in the capital city as election officials prepare for the presidential elections October 4, 2004, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Brett Graveline, an injured US Army veteran who served in Desert Storm and Iraq from ’06-’08, and then again in ’09-’11 when he was injured, trains with his service dog, Sunny. (Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

U.S. Marines and a military bomb-sniffing dog cluster for warmth while sleeping in a house captured by American and Iraqi forces from a man the military says is a former insurgent financier during an operation in Ramadi January 17, 2007, in the Anbar province of Iraq. (John Moore/Getty Images)