Egyptian Sel'awaa

There is a folkloric canine in Egyptian culture, the Sel'awaa, a dog-like animal with ferocious habits. Sightings cropped up in 2005 in Alexandria, and have recently been reported in the Sharkia region:

"RESIDENTS OF Belbis, a district in Lower Egypt's Sharkia area, are currently under the reign of terror of a wild canine, which Egyptians call the Sel'awaa.
"The Sel'awaa apparently looks like a normal dog, but its brown or dark yellow skin and two short hind-legs distinguish it from other, more common canines. The key difference, however, is that it is far more savage than a domesticated dog.
"Its almost-ordinary appearance certainly fooled one victim, Ahmed Al Sawy, 17, who says that when he first saw the animal, he though it was just another dog. He only remembered his friends' Sel'awaa warnings when the creature attacked him, biting his leg. Regaining consciousness later at Belbis hospital, Sawy put the pieces together.
"The police have since claimed they have shot the Sel'awaa, but eyewitnesses continue to report sightings, the beast apparently sporting different colors each time it appears."

This appears to be a fear-driven cultural myth, rather than a cryptid, but it would be interesting to know where it originally began.