How ‘super-detector’ dogs are helping free Iraq from the terror of Isis mines

Branco and X-Lang are part of an elite team - four canines and their Yazidi handlers - leading a groundbreaking sniff-search for the homemade devices that litter the land

On the wide, flat plain of the Sinjar district of northern Iraq, Naif Khalaf Qassim lets his dog, an eight-year-old Belgian shepherd, range across the dry earth on a 30-metre leash until Branco stops and sits, tail wagging, looking towards his handler with enthusiasm.

Branco has detected something underground and, when the mine-clearing team is brought in to investigate, they find an improvised explosive device (IED), known locally as a VS500.