Sniffer dog with US troops could have brought Osama down

Washington: The elite unit of US Navy SEALs that killed Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan had a specially-trained explosives-sniffing dog for the surgical strike. The 79 commandos brought along the military dog for the covert operation at bin Laden’s compound in the garrison town of Abbottabad on Sunday, according to US media reports.

The fearless four-legged recruit was strapped to an assault team member during the operation in which the special forces lowered themselves down ropes from the helicopters to storm the Al Qaeda leader’s secret lair. It is unclear what the role of this particular canine was in the 40-minute helicopter raid but he was probably there to sniff out explosives, detect weapons or even apprehend fleeing suspects.

The dog used in the US raid would have run down the 9/11 mastermind if he had tried to escape, according to the reports. The breed of the dog, who has not been named, was not known and he seems to have been unharmed in the operation and left with his teammates. The identity of the military super-dog, like that of the 79 Navy SEALs, will remain secret. But experts say the canine is either a German Shepherd or Belgian Malinois , breeds the US army believe have “the best overall combination of keen sense of smell, endurance, speed, strength, courage, intelligence and adaptability to almost any climatic condition”, according to a military fact sheet cited in the New York Times.

In the Abbottabad compound raid, the dog was equipped with protective body armour before rappelling onto the ground from a hovering helicopter in a support harness attached to its handler, according to media reports. This particular dog was known for its bomb-sniffing prowess and The Daily reports it was trained to “sniff out enemy troops from up to [3km> away”.

The German and Belgian shepherd dogs can run twice as fast as humans, so if bin Laden tried to escape on foot the dog could have stopped his getaway, the Atlantic reported. These dogs are typically well-protected, wearing body armour and infrared night sight cameras. They’re valuable dogs, well-trained and highly effective. The US is believed to have more than 500 dogs in service in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

According to the U.S. Air Force, the bite from a German shepherd, one of the breeds used by the military, has a force between 400 and 700 pounds. Military dogs go through rigorous training that is just as demanding as what human troops go through. Last year, at a cost of more than USD 20,000 per unit, the SEALs bought four tactical vests for their dogs, according to The New York Times. The vests are reported to have infrared and night-vision cameras that allow handlers to use a monitor from up to 1,000 yards away to see what the dog sees. The handler is also able to communicate with the dog through a speaker on the vest.

PTI