Terrorists in Syria recently learned the hard way that K9 warriors are harder to pin down than humans.
Members of Britain’s Special Air Service have a highly trained Belgian Malinois to thank for turning the tables on their would-be executioners. The two-month old mission, which was just disclosed over the weekend, reads like something out of the New York Times bestseller “Trident K9 Warriors,” by former Navy SEAL Mike Ritland and Gary Brozek.
A source told the U.K. Daily Star that six SAS operators were surrounded in an ambush when the dog sprang into action.
“The handler removed the dog’s muzzle and directed him into a building from where they were coming under fire,” a source said on Monday. “They could hear screaming and shouting before the firing from the house stopped. When the team entered the building they saw the dog standing over a dead gunman. His throat had been torn out and he had bled to death.”
Mr. Ritland’s book explains just how rare it is to have dogs who are trained and capable of accomplishing such a task.
“Dogs have been domesticated and bred for so long that the type of dog that is willing to stand up to and fight a human — a human that is not frightened by that dog and physically capable of disabling that dog — is a very, very rare animal,” he writes. “I call them the 1 percenters (this was before the term had a political connotation), but they are more like one in ten thousand.”
“A dog may demonstrate prey drive when going after a squirrel, but one that will exhibit that same prey drive when squaring off with a moose or other large animals are rare and desirable as working dogs,” he continues.
The K9’s heroics left two other terrorists injured and caused six others to flee.
“The dog was virtually uninjured,” the source added. “The SAS were able to consolidate their defensive position and eventually break away from the battle without taking any casualties.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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