The shot took just under 10 seconds to hit the target and was fired from a high-rise location during an operation within the past four weeks. Photo / 123RF
The shot took just under 10 seconds to hit the target and was fired from a high-rise location during an operation within the past four weeks. Photo / 123RF
A sniper with Canada's elite special forces in Iraq has shattered the world record for longest confirmed kill from a staggering distance of 3450 metres.
A member of Joint Task Force 2 killed an Islamic State terrorist with a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle, The Globe and Mail reported.
"The shot in question actually disrupted a Daesh [Islamic State] attack on Iraqi security forces," said a military source, who stressed the operation fell within the strictures of the Trudeau government's advise and assist mission.
"Instead of dropping a bomb that could potentially kill civilians in the area, it is a very precise application of force and because it was so far way, the bad guys didn't have a clue what was happening."
The shot took just under 10 seconds to hit the target and was fired from a high-rise location during an operation within the past four weeks.
The kill was independently verified by video camera and other data, The Globe and Mail reported.
"Hard data on this. It isn't an opinion. It isn't an approximation. There is a second location with eyes on with all the right equipment to capture exactly what the shot was," another military source said.
"This is an incredible feat. It is a world record that might never be equalled."
The longest confirmed kill world record was previously held by British sniper Craig Harrison, who shot a Taliban soldier with a 338 Lapua Magnum rifle from 2475 metres away in 2009.
Previously Canadian Corporal Rob Furlong had set the world record in 2002 at 2430 metres when he gunned down an Afghan insurgent carrying an RPK machine gun during Operation Anaconda.
An Australian sniper killed a Taliban commander at 2815 metres with a Barrett M82A1, The Daily Telegraph reported in October 2012.
The McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle was used in the longest confirmed kill by a sniper with Canada's elite special forces in northern Iraq. Photo / Supplied
CANADA'S ROLE IN IRAQ
Canada is not part of The Multi-National Force - Iraq which consists of military from the US, UK, Australia, Spain and Poland.
But Candaa is reported to have about 200 JTF2 elite special forces operating in northern Iraq, primarily tasked with counter-terrorism, sniper operations and hostage rescue.
The Trudeau government has expanded the military commitment in Iraq, committing 207 Canadian special forces trainers in an assist, train and advise mission. Canadian commandos are not meant to be involved in direct combat.
For operational security reasons, sources would not reveal the names of the elite Canadian sniper and his partner, nor the location where the action took place.
"Canada has a world-class sniper system. It is not just a sniper. They work in pairs. There is an observer," a military source said. "This is a skill set that only a very few people have."
The skill of the JTF2 sniper in taking down an insurgent at 3450 metres required math skills, great eyesight, precision of ammunition and firearms, and superb training.
"It is at the distance where you have to account not just for the ballistics of the round, which change over time and distance, you have to adjust for wind, and the wind would be swirling," said a source with expertise in training Canadian special forces.
"You have to adjust for him firing from a higher location downward and as the round drops you have to account for that. And from that distance you actually have to account for the curvature of the Earth."
ISIS' LAST STRONGHOLD
Iraqi forces are fighting fierce battles with the Islamic State group and rescuing escaping civilians as they pursued their offensive against Mosul's jihadist-held Old City.
Staff Lieutenant General Abdulghani al-Assadi, a senior commander in the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), said the battle was proceeding as expected but that progress was slow.
"Things are good and the battle is going as planned," he told AFP. "We have many obstacles - the nature of the land, the nature of the construction, the roads and the civilian population - all of which make us slow down our work."
He said civilians were escaping from the Old City, with up to 400 approaching the positions of Iraqi forces on Monday.
Federal police forces said they were moving forward on the southern front of the battle with support from heavy weapons fire and on the northern front had surrounded a hospital.
Iraqi forces launched the operation on Sunday to retake the Old City, the last part of Iraq's second city still held by IS after a months-long offensive.
Commanders say the jihadists are putting up fierce resistance and there are fears for more than 100,000 civilians believed to be trapped in the maze of narrow streets. The UN has said IS could be holding them as human shields.
The UN children's agency, UNICEF, said Tuesday that tens of thousands of children were among the civilians trapped in the Old City, and that those who managed to flee were traumatised.
"50,000 children are trapped in the Old City of west Mosul in absolutely horrifying conditions," said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF representative in Iraq.
"Many children fleeing the violence are severely distressed and need psychological care," he added, calling on all parties involved in the conflict to provide safe passage for civilians.
Iraqi forces have been inching forward in the face of heavy sniper and mortar fire and booby-traps laid by the jihadists.
'SURRENDER OR DIE'
On Monday, three French journalists were wounded and Kurdish reporter Bakhtiyar Addad killed in a mine explosion while accompanying Iraqi forces in Mosul.
French public broadcaster France Televisions said Tuesday that one of the wounded journalists, Stephan Villeneuve, had died of his injuries.
The push into Mosul's historic heart on the west bank of the Tigris River marks the culmination of a campaign launched in October by Iraqi forces to retake IS's last major urban stronghold in the country.
The US-led coalition battling IS in Iraq and neighbouring Syria has backed the offensive, including with months of air strikes.
The loss of Mosul would mark the effective end of the Iraqi portion of the cross-border "caliphate" that IS declared in summer 2014 after seizing swathes of Iraq and Syria.
Earlier this week, Iraqi forces dropped nearly 500,000 leaflets over the city, urging civilians to stay indoors and escape if they can.
They have also stationed Humvees facing the Old City mounted with loudspeakers telling IS fighters: "You have only this choice: surrender or die".
Surrounded by Iraqi forces on three sides and blocked on the other by the Tigris that runs through Mosul, the jihadists are cornered but commanders have said the battle could last weeks.
On Tuesday, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised the "success" of Iraqi forces while President Hassan Rouhani said the "liberation of Mosul" would spell the end "of terrorism".
Their remarks came as they met separately with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Tehran, a key backer of the Baghdad government.
Iraqi forces launched a vast operation to retake Mosul eight months ago, seizing the city's eastern side in January and starting an assault on the west the following month.
It is not clear how many civilians have been killed in the operation. Aid groups have raised concern that civilians could be caught in fierce street fighting.
"UNICEF is extremely concerned about children who are being injured and killed in the escalating violence. Half of those being treated with bullet and shrapnel wounds in trauma centres in west Mosul are children," Hawkins said.
Around 862,000 people have been displaced since the Mosul battle erupted. Around 195,000 have since returned, mainly to the city's east.
It was in the Old City's emblematic Al-Nuri mosque in July 2014 that IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his only public appearance.
He urged Muslims worldwide to move to the group's "caliphate" straddling Iraq and Syria. The jihadists have since lost most of the territory they once controlled in the face of US-backed offensives in Iraq and in Syria, where a Kurdish-Arab alliance is advancing on their last major stronghold Raqa.
