A Belgium shepherd, that was trained in the Netherlands, is being praised the world over for his role in taking down the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

War dog

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few days, you should know that on October 27, a US military task force embarked on a raid that led to the death of one of the world’s most notorious and dangerous terrorists – Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. However, what you might not know is that the true hero of the raid was a Belgian Shepherd named Conan.

As the task force closed in on al-Baghdadi, the ISIS leader tried to flee into underground tunnels. However, the real-life Scooby-Doo was brought in to track al-Baghdadi through the tunnels and kept the US forces moving in the right direction. They closed in on al-Baghdadi, who detonated his suicide vest, killing himself and three accompanying children.

The Netherlands’ finest

Marco van Hoof, the director of the canine training facility: Hondenadvies Centrum Nederland, claimed to have recognised the dog immediately when the US President, Donald Trump, tweeted a picture of Conan.

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! pic.twitter.com/PDMx9nZWvw

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 28, 2019

Despite his cute appearance, Conan is a lot more than your average pet. The Belgian Shepherd was trained at Hondenadvies Centrum in Best, northwest of Eindhoven, and then sent to the US from Amsterdam to join the military. The dog’s success in the mission came as no surprise to van Hoof who said, “We train dogs to achieve these kinds of results.”

Apparently, it’s quite unsurprising that a Dutch dog was involved in the raid. According to Eric Sanders from PROCentrum, a training centre for the Dutch police, the Netherlands is “very good at training dogs”. Sanders went on to say that the dogs trained in the Netherlands are usually used by the US army and the police.

An international celebrity

On Monday, Donald Trump announced the success of the mission at a press conference and told the world, “the dog was so great.” He subsequently tweeted a declassified picture of the hero pooch, although withheld the name as it was still classified. The dog’s name has since been revealed to be Conan. As if to demonstrate Conan’s significance, the President tweeted another photoshopped picture, depicting him presenting Conan with a medal.

AMERICAN HERO! pic.twitter.com/XCCa2sGfsZ

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2019

Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking officer in the US military, explained that the dog did sustain minor injuries when al-Baghdadi detonated his bomb vest. However, the pooch is already recovering and back to work.

Thumb: @realDonaldTrump