See the dog in the pic above?
It’s a British military dog named DaGarwal, the Pashto word for Colonel, working in Afghanistan who’s been captured by the evil Taliban, and we all know what that means, given Muslims’ antipathy toward dogs.
The UK Telegraph reports that last Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014, a video was released on a militant Islam website, of long-haired Taliban gunmen showing off various spoils of war, including captured weapons and a canine held by a chain.
The gunmen say the dog was snatched from American troops. However, military sources disputed that account, saying it was a British dog working with the SAS (Special Air Service), part of the UK Special Forces. The dog, a type of Belgian shepherd favored by the military for their endurance, wears the sort of complex shoulder harness used by military dogs so they can be hoisted rapidly in and out of helicopters and difficult terrain.
A Taliban spokesman said the dog was captured during a raid in the Laghman province east of Kabul on December 23, 2013 — a date that coincides with a British operation east of Kabul in which a special forces soldier, Captain Richard Holloway of the Royal Engineers, was killed.
A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance force in Kabul confirmed that a dog had gone missing during a mission in December. The UK’s Ministry of Defense has declined to comment.
For years the Taliban have railed against “infidel” dogs who have “invaded” Afghanistan. Dogs are used extensively by coalition forces in Afghanistan to sniff out IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), weapons or drugs, and for search and rescue. Four years ago, an Australian bomb-sniffing black Labrador named Sabi was lost in Afghanistan and then adopted by a Taliban leader who tried to sell her back. An American special forces soldier eventually retrieved Sabi from an unnamed man in north-eastern Oruzgan.
Please say a prayer for DaGarwal (“Colonel”), that he’ll be safely returned to the SAS.
H/t BareNakedIslamand FOTM’s CSM.
~Eowyn