What are those giant sand spiders in the middle eastern deserts called?

Question

I read about them and i've seen soldiers that have pics of them but i have no idea what they are.

Answer 1

well the most popular spiders out there that all the soldiers take pictures of are Camel spiders maybe thats them...

Answer 2

They are called Camel Spiders and they are huge.

Here's a picture of a pair of spiders.

http://z.about.com/d/urbanlegends/1/0/T/...

Answer 3

Camel spiders are not actually spiders, but they are solifugids, which are arachnids like the spiders, scorpions, ticks, and mites.  

Most of what you have probably heard about them are myths, they produce no silk (like all spiders do), they have no venom (like most spiders), and have a very different chelicerae (fangs or mouth appendages) structure than spiders do.  They get upwards of 6" which makes them pretty big, but they don't compare to some of the larger tropical South American tarantulas, such as the Goliath bird eater, which gets 12" in diameter.  

Also, interestingly, there are actually species of camel spiders in the South West United States, called windscorpions.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/7570

This shows the famous picture circulating the internet.  

http://home.myuw.net/mcraw/images/camel_...

This photo is a little deceptive.  First, there are two camel spiders in the picture, one holding onto the other.  Second, the legs in the background is just a guy in the background and   he is not holding the thing.  You can see the cuff of the guy holding them in the upper right.  Compare them to his wrist and they don't looks so big.