LUCKY STRIKE five

SAS sniper kills jihadis with bullet

AN SAS sniper killed five jihadis with a single shot from one of the Army’s most powerful rifles.

The marksman – a sergeant with 20 years’ experience – took out a suicide bomber in Syria from almost 3,000ft.

When the bullet hit the terrorist’s chest his bomb vest detonated, killing him and four other jihadis, one a top commander.

The attack happened in November during a kill-or-capture mission against Islamic State.

SAS troops had been working with Kurdish fighters to find an Isis unit responsible for attacks on villages.

The special forces team had been watching a suspected bomb factory for several days when five men left the building.

One of them was filming the suicide bomber, who was smiling and chatting to the camera.

The SAS soldier radioed his base explaining that the terrorists had emerged and he had a clean shot.

A source said: “The plan at that stage was to drop the suicide bomber with the first shot and then the leader if they felt they could identify him. But we got lucky.

“The target was at the maximum range. The sniper adjusted for the wind, aimed and gently squeezed the trigger. He waited for the target to drop but instead the guy exploded. When the dust settled there were four bodies lying around with various bits missing.

“It then occurred to the sniper that the vest had detonated.

“When you take out a suicide bomber you normally aim for the head. But this guy was at the extreme limit of his shooting ability so he went for the centre of his mass – the chest.” The sniper was using a Barrett .50 calibre rifle, the most powerful in the SAS armoury. The weapon is mainly used to hit larger targets such as aircraft, cars, trucks and lightly armoured tanks.

Its impact on humans is devastating and a single round can take off a limb.

Our source said that when the SAS team returned to base the sniper was presented with a baseball cap with the words “Long Range Death” on it.

They added: “The terrorists are scared to death of snipers. We use silencers on our rifles which seriously deadens the noise.

“They can’t see us or hear us, and they only know we are around when bodies start hitting the floor.”