His quarry stood nonchalantly in the fourth-floor bay window of a hospital in battle-torn Ramadi, still clasping a long-barreled Kalashnikov. Instinctively allowing for wind speed and bullet drop, Shadow’s commander aimed 12 feet high.
A single shot hit the Iraqi in the chest and killed him instantly. It had been fired from a range of more than three-quarters of a mile, well beyond the capacity of the powerful Leupold sight, accurate to 3,300 feet.
“I believe it is the longest confirmed kill in Iraq with a 7.62mm rifle,” said Sgt. Gilliland, 28, who hunted squirrels in Double Springs, Ala., from the age of 5 before progressing to deer — and then to insurgents and terrorists.
From the Washington Times. How marvellous to have a vocation.
Leaving morals aside, in the wider conflict a Canadian sniper “took down an insurgent” in Afghanistan from twice that distance, aiming something like 59 feet high and 36 feet wide. “You gotta admire the guy’s talent”, apparently.
Comment by Chris Manley — October 18, 2006 @ 1:05 am