London, Dec 15: 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, which occurred two weeks ago about 10 kilometres outside of the ISIS stronghold of Mosul, against the terrorists who were 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.
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 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.
The SAS is one of the world’s most renowned and respected special forces regiments.
