Move FM Global News

WASHINGTON, DC – American President Donald Trump continues to highlight the killing of arch-terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on the weekend.

On Monday, the President published a photo of the K-9 dog that was principally involved in hunting down the ISIS founder and leader in a cave in northwestern Syria on Saturday night.

He did so in defiance of a decision by U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, who earlier told a press conference the name and photos of the dog would not be released, “to protect the dog’s identity.”

Nonetheless, the president posted a photo of the unnamed dog on his personal Twitter page.

Now on Wednesday afternoon he has posted another photo of the dog with a blue ribbon around its neck signifying it has been awarded a medal for its bravery. Again the photo was published on Mr Trump’s Twitter page with the text “AMERICAN HERO!”

On Monday’s post, when the photo was first published, the president tweeted: “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!” Trump said in a tweet which accompanied the photo, posted early Monday night.

Yet earlier Monday, Esper and Milley were insistent neither the photo nor name of the dog would not be released.

“We’re not releasing the name of the dog right now. The dog is still in theater. The dog, the K-9, the military working dog performed a tremendous service, as they all do, in a variety of situations. Slightly wounded and fully recovering, but the dog is still in theater, returned to duty with its handler,” Milley said.

“So we’re not going to release just yet photos or names of dogs or anything else,” he added.

Secretary Esper chimed in, saying : “We’re protecting his identity.”

“Protecting the dog’s identity,” Milley repeated.

The unnamed dog was injured during Saturday night’s offensive approximately four miles from the Turkish border in the Idlib province in Syria.

Later the name of the dog caused more confusion. It was reported in some quarters the name of the dog is classified, which led some to believe the dog’s name was actually ‘classified.’

“US official confirms that the working dog wounded in the Baghdadi raid is ok. I said, what’s the dog’s name? Source said, it’s classified. I said, really? Source said, yes,” Washington Post journalist Dan Lamothe said in a tweet.

“Confirmed with a second source: As of this morning, at least, the dog’s name is classified. Mind you, the dog’s name is not ‘Classified.’ But it’s classified,” he said in a follow-up tweet.