British sniper kills five Islamic State fighters with three bullets

NEW DELHI: An unnamed British sniper saved hundreds of lives by killing five Islamic State terrorists, who were on their way to carry out a suicide bomb attack, with just three bullets, reports said.

A British Army source told the Daily Express that the operation, carried out two weeks ago about 10 km outside the IS stronghold of Mosul against terrorists holed up in a bomb factory, was a “classic SAS mission”.

“The intelligence guys got information that a bomb factory had been set up in a nearby village. There were too many civilian homes nearby and children were often around so an airstrike was out of the question,” the source was quoted as saying by the paper.

The green signal to fire at the targets was given after the men were spotted wearing unusually heavy coats in a hot weather a signal that they are wearing suicide vests.

“Instead, the SAS commander in Iraq decided to use a sniper team and the operation was a complete success. With just three well-aimed shots that single team has probably saved the lives of hundreds of innocent people,” the source said.

The veteran sniper was in position for several hours at a distance of 800m from the targets waiting for the terrorists to show up before unleashing three well-aimed shots, killing all the five terrorists.

The sniper’s first bullet hit a terrorist on his chest, triggering an explosion and killing him instantly and the two guards sitting in a car nearby.

While the second terrorist was killed by a headshot, the third was killed when a bullet hit his suicide vest, causing it to detonate.

The roles of the British Army’s special forces unit, the Special Air Service, include counter-terrorism and reconnaissance.