US President Donald Trump on Wednesday declassified the name of the military dog which was involved in the raid that killed the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
In a tweet, President Trump revealed that the dog is still in the Middle East and will be coming back next week, the US President said ''Conan'', who was injured in the raid, will be leaving for White House next week.
President Trump's tweet comes after he posted a photoshopped image of the military dog which was created by news organisation Daily Wire. He had captioned the photo--"AMERICAN HERO".
In the latest tweet, he thanked Daily Wire for the photo and said, "Thank you Daily Wire. Very cute recreation, but the ''live'' version of Conan will be leaving the Middle East for the White House sometime next week!"
Pentagon officials said that the dog is "fully recovering".
The K-9, which officials then declined to identify, accompanied the US special forces during the raid and played an instrumental role in locating and tracking al-Baghdadi at his compound in Syria's Idlib province.
During the operation, the ISIS leader was killed along with his wife and three children.
K-9 chased al-Baghdadi through a tunnel at his compound, following which the terrorist killed himself by detonating a suicide vest. The nature of the dog's injury was not revealed, but officials underlined that the canine played a key role in the success of the secret mission.
"The dog is still in theatre. The dog, the K-9, the military working dog, performed a tremendous service as they all do in a variety of situations. (It is) slightly wounded and fully recovering. But the dog is still in theatre (and) returned to duty with its handler," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley had said.
On Sunday, President Trump while confirming al-Baghdadi's death, said that the ISIS chief had "died like a dog" and "died like a coward" in the operation conducted by US forces in Syria.
He also spoke about the canine, saying a "beautiful dog" was injured during the operation, according to The Washington Post.
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