NEW YORK: In the group of 79 commandos involved in Operation Neptune Spear that resulted in Osama bin Laden's killing, there was one dog — the elite of the four-legged variety, the Foreign Policy magazine reported on Thursday.

And though the dog in question remains an enigma — another mysterious detail of the still-unfolding narrative of that historic mission — there should be little reason to speculate about why there was a dog involved: Man's best friend is a pretty fearsome warrior.

As to how the dog got into Bin Laden's compound is no puzzle — the same way the commandos team did, by being lowered from an MH-60s helicopter. In fact, US Air Force dogs have been airborne for decades, though the earliest flying dogs accompanied Soviet forces in the 1930s.

Dogs usually jump in tandem with their trainers, but when properly outfitted with flotation vests they can make short jumps into water on their own. A US Navy Seal, Mike Forsythe, and his dog, Cara recently broke the world record for “highest man/dog parachute deployment” by jumping from 30,100 feet.

Mike Dowling, a former Marine Corps dog handler who served in Iraq said there's a simple explanation for why the Navy Seals took a dog along on the Osama raid: “A dog's brain is dominated by olfactory senses.” In fact, Dowling says, a dog can have up to 225m olfactory receptors in their nose — the part of their brain devoted to scent is 40 times greater than that of a human.