Man's Best Friend ?

Dogs aka Man's best friend have always been around since ages. In recent times, their prowess in rescue operations and in sniffing out mines have rendered them indispensable. Following are the images from the war front where the four-footed animals do their bit to make the world a better and safer place to live in.


Shadow, an Afghan puppy owned by Canadian soldiers from the NATO-led coalition, sits in his sand-bagged kennel at Three Tank Hill base near Panjwaii town in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan.


A puppy sleeps under a U.S soldier's hat and rifles in Baquba, in Diyala province some 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad.


A British soldier from 3 SCOTS rests with his dog after taking over a Taliban compound in a Taliban-held area of Afghanistan's Helmand province during Operation Panther's Claw.


A U.S. soldier drives a vehicle with his dog at the Forward Operating Base (FOB) Airborne in the mountains of Wardak Province, Afghanistan.


Instructors hold on to the leashes of their dogs at the Ukrainian border guard dog training centre near Velyki Mosty village, about 50 km (30 miles) northwest of Lviv.


A dog sits on the ground as German Bundeswehr army soldiers of the 4th company, 391 mechanised infantry battalion part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) take a break in their combat outpost in Chahar Dara in the outskirts of Kunduz.


A German armed forces Bundeswehr soldier stands next to his sniffer dog after searching for improvised explosive devices (IOD) in Kunduz April 20, 2009.


A dog barks at a Russian serviceman in the Georgian city of Senaki.


A sniffer dog from the German Bundeswehr army military police takes a break during a demonstration for Afghan police officials at the ISAF camp in Kunduz


U.S. Sergeant Marcus Mayward is licked by a dog trained to sniff for explosives inside a military vehicle during security operations in Diyala province


U.S. Marines from Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, use dogs to search for explosives during an operation in the town of Marjah in Nad Ali district of Helmand province.


A U.S. soldier stands guard outside a local clinic with a bomb sniffing dog in Tarmiya town, 30 km (20 miles) north of Baghdad.


U.S. soldiers with the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team 3-1 CAV take a break with their explosives sniffer dog during a major search operation for weapons and insurgents, in a brickyard near the city of Narhwan, about 30km (18 miles) west of Baghdad.


Israeli soldiers unload their weapons near Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, after a military operation in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.


A German armed forces Bundeswehr soldier plays with his sniffer dog after searching for improvised explosive devices (IOD) in Kunduz.