Military dog seized by Taliban is British
Chocolate-brown Belgian shepherd is in OK condition and has been given the name Colonel, Taliban say
A military dog captured by the Taliban is British, and probably went missing when a commando unit got caught up in a fierce firefight just before Christmas.
The chocolate-brown Belgian shepherd is being held “in a safe place” in eastern Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman said. “The condition of the dog is OK, he was not injured and is not being mistreated,” Zabihullah Mujahid told the Associated Press.
There have been no demands for the release or ransom of the dog, which the Taliban said in a video voiceover they were calling Colonel.
Although the insurgents described it as a US dog, a Pentagon official said in a briefing on Thursday that the animal was actually British.
The Ministry of Defence declined to confirm who owned the dog and referred all questions to the Nato mission in Kabul. But the Nato mission has a policy of deferring identification to national governments, which a spokesman said applied to animals as well as soldiers.
The insurgents said they captured the dog, and weapons displayed in the same video, during a gunfight in eastern Laghman province on 23 December. That was the day that 29-year-old Captain Richard Holloway, of the Royal Engineers, was killed in an operation in the same area.
He was believed to have been on a mission with special forces, as there are no British soldiers posted in the province, and his commanding officer was not named.
