Conan is a tough cookie: Donald Trump welcomes military dog, who helped kill al-Baghdadi, to White House

Reuters

Washington DC: United States President Donald Trump welcomed Conan, the military dog who was injured during the successful US special forces raid which had lead to the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to the White House on Monday. Speaking to reporters on the occasion, Trump praised Conan as a "tough cookie" who "recovered very quickly" from the injuries sustained during the successful operation and "has since gone on very important raids".

He said that the dog has arrived in Washington from the Middle East and had received a "medal and a plaque". At one point during the interaction, Trump said Conan has been trained to turn on reporters who asked questions. "It`s trained that if you open your mouths, you will be attacked. You want to be very, very careful," the US President said, as cited by CNN in a report.

"Conan was very badly hurt ... and they thought maybe was not going to recover, (but) recovered very quickly and has since gone on very important raids," Trump said, adding that Conan was not retiring and is in "prime time" age-wise. Conan had 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. He is said to have chased al-Baghdadi through a tunnel at his compound, following which the terrorist killed himself by detonating a suicide vest.