UPDATE:
- The dog who aided the ISIS raid has an invitation to the White House “whenever he can get over here,” per senior official.
The president wants to meet him.
- The American Belgian Malinois Club has already claimed this dog as one of its own. Same breed was used during the Bin Laden raid.
- The dog “is still in theater, returned to duty,” said Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But the name is still classified.
Delta Force dog returns to duty after being injured in Baghdadi raid
The dog that accompanied Delta Force soldiers into Syria’s Idlib Province to hunt down Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi this weekend was only “slightly wounded” during the raid and is back on duty, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said on Monday.
“We’re not releasing the name of the dog right now. The dog is still in theater,” Milley told reporters at the Pentagon, adding that the dog was “slightly wounded and fully recovering.”
“We’re protecting the dog’s identity,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper joked.
The dog has “returned to duty with its handler,” Milley added.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that the dog had chased Baghdadi into the tunnel where the terrorist leader then detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and three children.
"Our K-9, as they call — I call it a dog, a beautiful dog, a talented dog — was injured and brought back," Trump said.
After the Pentagon briefing, Trump tweeted a photo of the dog. "We have declassified a picture of the wonderful dog (name not declassified) that did such a GREAT JOB in capturing and killing the Leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi!" Trump tweeted.
Commando units such as Delta Force, SEAL Team 6, and the 75th Ranger Regiment typically bring specially trained dogs on their missions, often German Shepherds or Belgian Malinois.
The dogs are outfitted with military equipment, including body armor and sometimes cameras, and are trained to sniff out explosives and chase down terrorist fighters.
The dog that accompanied SEALs on the 2011 raid into Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden was named Cairo. Last December, a 7-year-old dog named Maiko was killed along with Army Sgt. Leandro Jasso during a Ranger raid in Afghanistan.
