Zero Bark 30!
Tom Hardy’s bizarre tribute to hero dog that helped to take out Isis terror chief
HE’S one of Britain’s biggest stars – but it seems Tom Hardy is himself a fan of the heroic dog credited with taking out a notorious terror chief.
Our exclusive pictures show the Hollywood heart-throb posting a sticker of the ‘canine commando’ which took part in the US raid that ended in Isis leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi blowing himself up.
In his baseball cap and tracksuit bottoms on a street in leafy Richmond, South-West London, the 42year-old Peaky Blinders star was with his actress wife Charlotte Riley, who seemed to be keeping a lookout.
The sticker is a tribute to the dog used by the elite Delta Force commando unit in the operation in Syria last month.
The dog’s name was classified, so in the US press it was dubbed ‘Zero Bark Thirty’ – playing upon ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, the name of the film which dramatised the hunt for Osama bin Laden and ended with his death in 2011. A logo with the nickname has since appeared on merchandise around the world including stickers.
It has since been revealed the dog is called Conan.
US President Donald Trump posted his own social media tribute after details of the dog’s heroism were made public.
He tweeted: ‘We have declassified a picture of the wonderful dog (name not declassified) that did such a great job in capturing and killing the leader of Isis.’
Conan, a male Belgian Malinois, was named after the American chat show host Conan O’Brien because of his shaggy hair.
Hardy, whose big-screen credits include Inception, The Revenant and The Dark Knight Rises is known to be a dog lover.
He has several pet dogs of his own and has been a passionate campaigner for charities, including Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.
In 2018 he starred in a video for the animal rescue centre in which he appeared alongside dogs looking for a new home.
And in 2015 he surprised everyone by agreeing to appear in an episode of Paul O’Grady’s For The Love Of Dogs.
Hardy will star in an adaptation of A Christmas Carol on BBC1 later this year.