Chris Kyle, the subject of the movie “American Sniper,” has been celebrated (or reviled, depending on who you ask) for having 160 confirmed kills.
However, a 62-year-old Iraqi man says that he has killed 173 ISIS fighters since May 2015.
Abu Tahseen is a member of the Hashd Al-Shaabi Shia militia who are fighting ISIS in northern Iraq.
The clip where he claims to have killed 173 fighters has been around for a few months, but it didn’t get widespread media coverage until this week. The footage shows Tasheen firing a shot from his rifle, allegedly hitting a militant in the Iraqi mountains. “Sweet,” he then says.
Tasheen also apparently obtained a radio of ISIS fighters. “This is ISIS that’s attacking us,” he says.
He says: “I swear, I guarantee by God when he falls, this pushes him back a meter before putting him down.”
Last year, he joined Popular Mobilization Units as a volunteer to defend Iraq, and he’s currently stationed at Makhoul Mountains in North Baiji.
“You see this area—I guarantee to god, no-one would come up it,” Tasheen says of his battlefield vantage point.
Tasheen is a veteran of five wars, including the Yom Kippur war, the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, the invasion of Kuwait, the Gulf War in the 1990s, and the current fight against ISIS.
“I’m relaxed, my mind is relaxed,” Tasheen adds. “Last time they gave me a month off and after 12 days I came back.”
