Jihadi Jackal, by Ron Helle

I was the watch officer in our Operations Center at the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center (BDSC). Things slow down quite a bit after midnight, so when the phone rang, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

It was the K-9 training manager, and he related an incident that had happened about 20 minutes earlier. They were using the soccer field to conduct training for the EDDs (Explosive Detection Dogs). In this particular session, they were using a stick of dynamite. They would conceal it and then have the dogs attempt to locate it. Suddenly, a jackal came out of nowhere, picked up the stick of dynamite, and took off! Needless to say, that led to a frantic search of the area for about 45 minutes until a partially chewed stick of dynamite was eventually recovered….

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