Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The Taliban has released footage of the dog, apparently called "Colonel"

ISAF officials in Afghanistan have confirmed a military dog went missing during a mission in December last year.

US military sources say the dog belonged to a coalition partner and the BBC understands it was working for British forces.

The Taliban earlier released footage of what they claimed was a dog they captured from US troops.

They said the dog, apparently called Colonel, was wearing a GPS tracking device, a torch and small camera.

Analysis Dogs are considered unclean by Afghans, and their use by international forces in house searches has been controversial. Rumours and myths have risen among insurgents about the capacity of dogs, including the widely held belief among Taliban fighters that the dogs are trained to kill. In recent years, more dogs have been employed by Afghan forces to detect explosives.

Looking rather mournful, on a lead being held by a long-haired Taliban fighter, the small reddish-brown dog was paraded for a Taliban cameraman, reports the BBC's David Loyn in Kabul.

The Taliban said the dog was taken during a night raid in Laghman in eastern Afghanistan in late December.

The insurgents also showed off captured weapons of a type frequently used by American special forces.

Our correspondent says there were local reports a few weeks ago that a senior Taliban commander in the area was seen with a "foreign dog".

But the video is the first positive sighting.

Coalition forces have long used sniffer and protection dogs in Afghanistan, mostly German shepherds, Labradors or spaniels.