The tragedy of the Afghan war-hero dog

The video: A dog that saved the lives of dozens of soldiers in Afghanistan — and once "melted hearts" on Oprah — was accidentally euthanized at an Arizona shelter this week. The erstwhile stray, a female shepherd mix, befriended a group of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and, at one point, chased away a suicide bomber who tried to get into their barracks. Sgt. Terry Young brought the dog, known as Target, back to the U.S. after his tour was over. But Target recently slipped out of Young's backyard and wound up in a pound, where a shelter worker (now on administrative leave) mistakenly put her down.

The reaction: How sad, say the editors of Britain's Daily Mail, that a "life-saving hero" that survived a bomb blast and gunfire could be killed by "a clerical error at a U.S. dog pound." It's devastating, says Heather Murphy-Raines at The Stir, that "such a noble dog that saved so many lives would so thoughtlessly be put down." Watch a CNN report:

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