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Taliban: Dog now a POW in Afghanistan

Taliban: Dog captured by the Taliban is being cared for say Afghan insurgents. The British special forces dog was taken a month ago during a battle in eastern Afghanistan.

  • By Amir Shah Associated Press

| Kabul, Afghanistan

The Taliban said Friday that they have captured a military dog belonging to NATO forces in Afghanistan, releasing a video of the canine wearing a high-tech harness.

Insurgent spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said Friday that the dog was captured during a battle about a month ago in Laghman province, east of the capital, Kabul.

The insurgents sent by email a video showing a brown dog held on a leash by an armed Taliban fighter. It wore a black harness mounted with what the Taliban said was a video camera, and a voiceover said the dog was being called "Colonel."

Mujahid said by telephone that the dog is being held in a "safe place" in Laghman. "The condition of the dog is OK — he was not injured and is not being mistreated," he said.

The NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan confirmed Friday that one of its military dogs went missing during a mission in December.  US and British media say the canine was working with a British special forces unit when it was captured.

The Telegraph reports that "locals in Alingar Valley, in the eastern province of Laghman, said the dog was being held by a notoriously brutal commander who goes by the nom de guerre of Abu Zarqawi.

“I saw it six days ago with Taliban and it looked OK,” said one man speaking on condition of anonymity.

Military service dogs are used to sniff out bombs and are also used in special forces raids as protection and to help subdue suspects. Bringing dogs into homes during raids is controversial in Afghanistan because dogs are considered unclean by many Muslims.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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