British Sniper Kills ISIS Chief With Extremely Long-Range Nighttime Shot

British Sniper Kills ISIS Chief With Extremely Long-Range Nighttime Shot
Royal Marines from 42 Commando take part in an exercise at Barry Buddon simulating an attack on shores of a hostile country in Carnoustie, Scotland on April 12, 2013. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Colin Fredericson
3/19/2018
Updated:
3/19/2018

A Sniper with the Special Air Service (SAS) of the British army killed a man believed to be an ISIS military chief.

The sniper is part of the SAS G-Squadron. He made the shot near the Syrian border, during anti-terrorism operations. He has previously served in military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is reputed to have up to 100 kills in those operations, Daily Mail reported.
The sniper had only a 15-second opportunity to make the shot. The unit could not get close to the village because it was under ISIS control and would have been too risky, Daily Star Sunday reported.

“The shot was one in a million. Getting a one-round, one-kill head shot at night using thermal imagery in a 15-second target window is about as close to impossible as you can get but he pulled it off,” a source told Daily Star Sunday.

His unit waited for the ISIS commander during the day, hoping to take the shot with the help of daylight. But they had to adjust when evening approached and the commander hadn’t shown up to a terrorist safe house, according to the source, via Daily Star Sunday.

“It is always preferable to capture rather than kill because of the potential to gather more intelligence. Instead a kill mission was planned. The SAS team had hoped that the Isis commander would arrive during the day because a night shot was regarded as too dangerous.” said the source, via Daily Star Sunday. “But as evening approached the team realised that they were going to have to either abort or go for a night shot. The sniper said he wanted to take the shot and was given a ‘go order’”

The sniper took the shot with a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle, an American-made weapon, Daily Star Sunday reported.

“The village was in the hands of ISIS gunmen so there was absolutely no chance of organizing a capture mission. To do so would have been suicide,” said the source, via Daily Star Sunday. “The bullet struck the ISIS commander in the back of the head and basically took off his face. He died instantly.”

From NTD.tv
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Colin is a New York-based reporter. He covers Entertainment, U.S., and international news. Besides writing for online news outlets he has worked in online marketing and advertising, done voiceover work, and has a background in sound engineering and filmmaking. His foreign language skills include Spanish and Chinese.