Sniffer dogs replace magic wands in Baghdad

By Arthur MacMillan, in Baghdad for AFP Published: 10:37AM GMT twenty-two February 2010

A K-9 dog trains at the Iraq troops academy in Baghdad. Photo: AFP/ALI AL-SAADI

During a proof at a checkpoint in Baghdad, Neil scurried around a car, inhaling and exhaling the front and behind seats, foot and bonnet, prior to a handler patted the head helpfully and told a at the moment inconvenienced motorist he could move on.

"We usually check the cars we are questionable of," pronounced an Iraqi troops officer, who admits singular masculine drivers are the organisation majority expected to be stopped since they are seen as intensity self-murder bombers.

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A new liaison over a hand-held bomb-detection device that the Iraqi security forces make make make make make use of of of of of at checkpoints, but that US and British tests have shown is unqualified of detecting explosives, has forced them to see at alternative options.

The make make make make make use of of of of of of some-more sniffer dogs is a approach response.

"We have 47 explosve dogs," pronounced Brigadier General Mohammad Mossheb, commander in chief of the K-9 section at Baghdad Police College, and the troops officer tasked with construction up the war-torn nation"s dog capability.

The German Shepherds, Belgian Shepherds (Malinois) and Labradors being used in Iraq are typically around one year old. They cost in between $8,000 and $9,000 and arrive from the United States or the Netherlands entirely lerned in expectation of a 10-year operative life.

The cost is a fragment of the estimated $16,500 to $60,000 cost of the ADE651, the hand-held tool well known locally as the "magic wand", that notwithstanding being criminialized from trade by Britain, where it was bought, is still used via Iraq and around twenty alternative countries.

However, the charge confronting Mossheb, 48, who lerned for five years at Baghdad Veterinary College prior to fasten the troops dog section in 1986, is immense.

"We would need 1,000 dogs to cover the complete country," pronounced the officer, whose unvaried bears the pinned token of a German Shepherd with the prolonged red tongue unresolved out. "We have a plan in place but it will take time."

The subsequent stairs are to have 6 dogs at each of eighteen checkpoints surrounding the collateral by the finish of 2011, a serve twenty at troops stations on the easterly and west sides of the city, and multiform in each of Iraq"s seventeen alternative provinces.

Security concerns are quite heightened in the run-up to the country"s Mar 7 ubiquitous election, among fears of politically encouraged violence.

The supervision is additionally underneath serious vigour from opponents who contend a array of concurrent self-murder attacks that killed some-more than 400 people in Baghdad in the past 6 months infer it has unsuccessful to secure the capital.

Mossheb is acutely wakeful of allegations that the ADE651, some-more than 1,000 of that were paid for by the government, unsuccessful to acknowledge bombs that have caused hundreds, presumably thousands, of deaths since it came in to make make make make make use of of of of of in 2008.

"This appurtenance has caused most problems," he said. "But it is a make a difference for the supervision to resolve."

With bombers utilizing increasingly worldly techniques, together with stealing explosives in car frames or engines so they cannot be rescued by the exposed eye, sniffer dogs are deliberate really reliable.

While the dogs arrive in Baghdad entirely trained, a group is indispensable to see after them. Veterinarians, veterinary technicians and handlers are receiving apart nine-week precision courses at the K-9 unit"s headquarters.

Trainee handler Ammar Ali Najim, 31, from the northern city of Kirkuk, has outlayed one week at the troops college and is acutely wakeful of the job"s dangers.

"Even if there is a explosve and it explodes, may be my dog and I will die, but we competence save the lives of twelve or fifteen alternative people," he said.

Cultural concerns over the make make make make make use of of of of of of bomb-sniffing dogs, however, have been a worry, since that most Muslims cruise them unwashed animals.

While US soldiers and unfamiliar in isolation security firms have used dogs for years, Iraqis have been demure to, since soldiers did not similar to utilizing them and the internal race disliked being searched by them.

US troops officers, who were the initial to subject the efficacy of the ADE651, hold dogs and some-more costly hi-tech X-ray vans, that can shade an complete vehicle"s contents, suggest the most appropriate defence.

The perfect worry of interlude car bombs, however, is strong on the undiluted streets of the collateral where trade jams are constant.

On Abu Nawas Street in Baghdad, by that an explosives-laden train upheld prior to the motorist detonated the cargo outward the Sheraton Hotel last month, murdering multiform people, it was viewable that the troops face a dilemma.

In the two-and-a-half mins it took Neil to check one car, around 70 vehicles, together with multiform lorries and small buses, were waved by but delay.

"You can"t make make make make make use of of of of of a dog in so most trade as this," handler Hussein Ismail explained, as cars roared past. "Plus a little people at checkpoints are only not operative tough enough."