British SAS sniper saves boy & father from IS execution

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**angelofvengeance**

From half a mile away..

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/08/10/report-british-sniper-saves-boy-father-from-islamic-state-beheading-with-half-mile-shot/

A British special forces sniper saved the lives of a boy and his father who were about to be beheaded by Islamic State jihadists by firing a shot at the head of the executioner from his position more than half a mile away, a British newspaper reported.

According to the Daily Star, a unit of Britain’s special forces Special Air Service carrying out covert patrols on the Syrian-Turkish border was tipped by an Iraqi spy to the execution site where Shiites accused of being “infidels” were going to be beheaded.

An unnamed military source told the newspaper that “there were several decapitated bodies already lying on the ground” in the village where the field trial and punishment were underway.

An SAS ground unit had moved into position just outside the village where the gruesome punishment was being meted out.

“Through binoculars, the soldiers could see that the crowd were terrified and many were in tears,” the source said.

Soon, a man and his young son were pulled from the crowd, blindfolded, and placed on their knees.

“A tall bearded man emerged and drew a long knife,” the source reportedly said. “He began addressing the crowd and slapping the father and his son around the head and kicking them onto the floor.”

The knife-wielding jihadist was flanked by two men toting AK-47s.

That’s when the SAS sniper killed the executioner using a .50-caliber rifle shot from 1,000 meters away, more than half a mile.

“The ISIS thug who was about to decapitate the father was shot in the head and collapsed,” the unnamed source told the Daily Star. ”Everyone just stared in confusion. The sniper then dispatched the two henchmen with single shots – three kills with three bullets.”

After the militants were killed, the boy and his father were untied and ran away toward the Turkish border.

The Star reported that the sniper plan gelled after the unit rejected calling in an aerial drone attack due to the risk that innocent bystanders would be killed.

“It was a good day’s work,” the source told the Star.

**Desubot**

Wait wouldn't revealing that it was the SAS on a covert mission be a bad thing?

Also props on the shots.

**NuggzTheNinja**

I'm really hoping that this is true, but part of me thinks it's just feel-good propaganda.

**Smacks**

For those who might not be very familiar with British newspapers, The Daily Star is the trashiest of trashy gossip tabloids, with less journalistic integrity than something you might find scrawled on a toilet wall.

**nels1031**

Smacks wrote:
with less journalistic integrity than something you might find scrawled on a toilet wall.

YMMV, but every time I've called one of the numbers posted on a toilet wall as "For a good time call", I've had a good time. Its how I met John Travolta!

**Kilkrazy**

I wish this story were true. It is exactly the sort of thing we should be doing, striking at the ISIS leadership.

**Orlanth**

It could well be true, ISIS are directly gunning for us and it will play well to the people if headchoppers are headcapped. I could see this being an authorised leak for national morale purposes.

Especially since revelations of an even more serious nature. Like this:

http://www.inquisitr.com/2319795/queen-elizabeth-terror-plot-isis-plan-to-assassinate-her-next-week/

**Breotan**

Smacks wrote:
The Daily Star is the trashiest of trashy gossip tabloids, with less journalistic integrity than something you might find scrawled on a toilet wall.

I thought the SUN held that position. Wait, I forget, which one did the wiretapping and how many does Murdoch own (I'm sure he owns at least two)?

**angelofvengeance**

The Sun and News of the World (NOTW deader than dead) as well as The Times and The Sunday Times

The Daily Star is gak, true. As well as Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday

News of the World got utterly destroyed for wire tapping/hacking etc.

**Orlanth**

angelofvengeance wrote:

News of the World got utterly destroyed for wire tapping/hacking etc.

News of the World were fall guys for the phone hacking. Mirror and Sun were both up to it every bit as much as the News of the World. We know thias is true from the actual accounts and lawsuits many of them having nothing to do with News of the World. Folding the newspaper served two purposes.

1. It took the heat away from other publications.
2. It allowed Murdoch who owned both the Sun and News of the World to amalgamate cutting overheads. Most of the News of the World readership transfered to the Sun and Daily Star, so all in all Murdoch profited by losing the publication.

I am sure that bottom line was well looked into before the paper went under, it wouldnt have happened otherwise, tabloids are not entirely above the law, but are pretty close.

**xraytango**

.50 cal is an anti-materiel round.

As such it was not purpose intended for use on combatants.

It can however be used to put great big holes in their uniforms which are materiel.

I think the sniper was really aiming for the guy's sword, but he missed, probably ruined his nice hat.

Messed up his hair a bit too no doubt.

**Relapse**

NuggzTheNinja wrote:
I'm really hoping that this is true, but part of me thinks it's just feel-good propaganda.

That's what I'm thinking.

**dusara217**

This sounds like half a dozen stories my father told me about his tour in Iraq...

Automatically Appended Next Post:

xraytango wrote:
.50 cal is an anti-materiel round.

As such it was not purpose intended for use on combatants.

It can however be used to put great big holes in their uniforms which are materiel.

I think the sniper was really aiming for the guy's sword, but he missed, probably ruined his nice hat.

Messed up his hair a bit too no doubt.

Wouldn't a .50 calibre rifle round basically make the head explode?

**xraytango**

Yes.

**SagesStone**

This sounds like a round of CoD printed in a paper who forgot to find a story for the day and needed a reason for people to buy their crap.

**Grey Templar**

Orlanth wrote:
It could well be true, ISIS are directly gunning for us and it will play well to the people if headchoppers are headcapped. I could see this being an authorised leak for national morale purposes.

Especially since revelations of an even more serious nature. Like this:

http://www.inquisitr.com/2319795/queen-elizabeth-terror-plot-isis-plan-to-assassinate-her-next-week/

Not that this shouldn't be taken seriously, but does ISIS really have the resources to pull this off?

Automatically Appended Next Post:

dusara217 wrote:

Wouldn't a .50 calibre rifle round basically make the head explode?

Head? It'll make your torso go away. The head would just become red mist.

I've seen footage of bodies that got hit by those rounds and they do excellent imitations of ragdoll physics from Fallout3.

**BlaxicanX**

Clint Eastwood directed biopic about this when?

**dusara217**

Grey Templar wrote:
Orlanth wrote:
It could well be true, ISIS are directly gunning for us and it will play well to the people if headchoppers are headcapped. I could see this being an authorised leak for national morale purposes.

Especially since revelations of an even more serious nature. Like this:

http://www.inquisitr.com/2319795/queen-elizabeth-terror-plot-isis-plan-to-assassinate-her-next-week/

Not that this shouldn't be taken seriously, but does ISIS really have the resources to pull this off?

Automatically Appended Next Post:

dusara217 wrote:

Wouldn't a .50 calibre rifle round basically make the head explode?

Head? It'll make your torso go away. The head would just become red mist.

I've seen footage of bodies that got hit by those rounds and they do excellent imitations of ragdoll physics from Fallout3.

That's what I thought, but I had to make sure. Makes me wonder what those .75 caliber musketballs did to people, back in the day.

**Grey Templar**

Nasty things.

Limbs being amputated as common practice wasn't because of lacking medical practices, it was more because the limbs were usually well beyond saving. Even for modern medicine. If a ball hit bone you were either dead or missing a limb. If it hit flesh you'd just have to hope to avoid the sepsis.

**Steve steveson**

Desubot wrote:
Wait wouldn't revealing that it was the SAS on a covert mission be a bad thing?

Nope. Propaganda. Not for us, but for ISIS. "Your death may come at any time". Re-enforce the "myth of the sniper". They thought they were safe, they thought they could behead with immunity, but death came to them from an invisible force a kilometer away etc.

xraytango wrote:
.50 cal is an anti-materiel round.

As such it was not purpose intended for use on combatants.

Yep, but you use what you got. If what you are carrying is a .50 cal you use it. I assume they are using .50 cal allot as it is particularly affective against ISIS. Limited to no real armor, it will punch though an engine block of a Hilux, body armor, metal plates welded to car doors and other improvised protection. Although I can't imagine lugging a .50 cal rifle and enough rounds to be useful can be fun in that heat! I assume, like hunting, you don't need many, but you don't want to run out and miss a shot.

dusara217 wrote:

That's what I thought, but I had to make sure. Makes me wonder what those .75 caliber musketballs did to people, back in the day.

Probably much worse than a .50 cal in many ways. At least a .50 cal has the energy to take a limb clean off and carry through. Those big musket balls were traveling far slower and probably made a nasty nasty mess of anything they touched. I believe that they would often be carrying quite a bit of energy still when they hit, but due to that not being enough to travel through and the relative lack of "penetrating power" due to the shape and size, they would dissipate all their energy in to the body rather than carrying it through, and would be doing nasty stuff just sat in the wound. Ask any hunter, you want the round to stay in the body, not carry through. A larger caliber that stays in the body always causes more of a mess than a smaller caliber with the same energy that carries through. Thats one of the reasons people prefer a .22lr to a .17HMR for rabbits, even though the HMR carries further, has more power and a flatter trajectory.

**AlmightyWalrus**

Steve steveson wrote:

Yep, but you use what you got. If what you are carrying is a .50 cal you use it. I assume they are using .50 cal allot as it is particularly affective against ISIS. Limited to no real armor, it will punch though an engine block of a Hilux, body armor, metal plates welded to car doors and other improvised protection. Although I can't imagine lugging a .50 cal rifle and enough rounds to be useful can be fun in that heat! I assume, like hunting, you don't need many, but you don't want to run out and miss a shot.

If I, as a layman, might hazard a guess, presumably a sniper would want to engage at as big of a distance as plausible in order to stay concealed and/or to be able to get away. Accordingly, it stands to reason that something like a .50 round that takes limbs clean off even with glancing hits at extreme ranges would be prefered, because it means it's easier to get an effective hit. The fact that you can also shoot at vehicles, helicopters and the like ought to be another bonus, since it increases your list of effective targets.

**Steve steveson**

AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Steve steveson wrote:

Yep, but you use what you got. If what you are carrying is a .50 cal you use it. I assume they are using .50 cal allot as it is particularly affective against ISIS. Limited to no real armor, it will punch though an engine block of a Hilux, body armor, metal plates welded to car doors and other improvised protection. Although I can't imagine lugging a .50 cal rifle and enough rounds to be useful can be fun in that heat! I assume, like hunting, you don't need many, but you don't want to run out and miss a shot.

If I, as a layman, might hazard a guess, presumably a sniper would want to engage at as big of a distance as plausible in order to stay concealed and/or to be able to get away. Accordingly, it stands to reason that something like a .50 round that takes limbs clean off even with glancing hits at extreme ranges would be prefered, because it means it's easier to get an effective hit. The fact that you can also shoot at vehicles, helicopters and the like ought to be another bonus, since it increases your list of effective targets.

The effective range of a round like a .338 is not significantly less than a .50. The .50 will theoretically carry further than something like a .338 due to the additional kinetic energy. However there are downsides, especially at extremely long range, some of which mean that it's realistic range is not as fat.

Firstly there is the ballistic effects. The .50 being a larger, heavier round will be more effected by atmospheric conditions, such as a cross wind. It will also have more of an arc to its trajectory for the same power. These can be overcome, but they introduce more difficulties in to the shot, therefor more chance of a miss.

Then there is the physical issue. A .50 is a bigger round, therefor you need a bigger rifle and you get more recoil. The first is just a PITA, the second, again, makes a shot more difficult. .50 rifles are also loud, dirty things to shoot. At the few ranges you can shoot them in the UK they have to shoot well away from all the other long range shooters because no one wants to sit close to them.

There is a wide range of considerations, and I don't know all of them as I am not a sniper, just a recreational shooter, but when hunting you don't go out with more gun than you need for the quarry. No point in lugging around a .308 for muntjac and no point in lugging around a .50 if you don't plan on shooting what it was designed for.

Heres a video of people playing with a .50 just for the hell of it:

Spoiler:

**Silent Puffin?**

Desubot wrote:
Wait wouldn't revealing that it was the Scircumstances jogssion be a bad thing?

Also props on the shots.

The official story is that there are no 'boots on the ground'. There are always boots on the ground in such circumstances, it an open secret. That being said I would be amazed if this was an 'authorised leak' though and its entirely possible its just made up.

**Dreadclaw69**

If true a cold bore shot from a .50cal, over a mile away, with no sighting in round is impressive.

**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

If this story is true (and I suspect that it's propaganda 101) then fair play to the guy for saving lives.

In all honesty, though, I am sick to the back teeth of hearing about the British military in the Middle East. We've had two hundred years of that gak.

High time we got the hell out.

**Relapse**

Orlanth wrote:
It could well be true, ISIS are directly gunning for us and it will play well to the people if headchoppers are headcapped. I could see this being an authorised leak for national morale purposes.

Especially since revelations of an even more serious nature. Like this:

http://www.inquisitr.com/2319795/queen-elizabeth-terror-plot-isis-plan-to-assassinate-her-next-week/

What would be the repercussions of that? I am thinking things would get real ugly for terrorists.

**Steve steveson**

Silent Puffin? wrote:
Desubot wrote:
Wait wouldn't revealing that it was the Scircumstances jogssion be a bad thing?

Also props on the shots.

The official story is that there are no 'boots on the ground'. There are always boots on the ground in such circumstances, it an open secret. That being said I would be amazed if this was an 'authorised leak' though and its entirely possible its just made up.

They were "paroling the boarder", so deniable there is "boots on the ground" if true and questioned. "No sir, we were not in Syria. We were in Turkey. It just so happened that we noticed someone half a mile in to Syria so we engaged. At no point did we enter Syria. Honest". After all Turkey is an ally and a member of NATO, so we have an obligation to help secure their borders. On top of that, we don't really want war to spread in to Turkey. That is getting far to close to the EU boarders for comfort.

Relapse wrote:
Orlanth wrote:
It could well be true, ISIS are directly gunning for us and it will play well to the people if headchoppers are headcapped. I could see this being an authorised leak for national morale purposes.

Especially since revelations of an even more serious nature. Like this:

http://www.inquisitr.com/2319795/queen-elizabeth-terror-plot-isis-plan-to-assassinate-her-next-week/

What would be the repercussions of that? I am thinking things would get real ugly for terrorists.

The IRA couldn't get close to the Queen. ISIS are rank amateurs.

**motyak**

Steve steveson wrote:

The IRA couldn't get close to the Queen. ISIS are rank amateurs.

They almost killed the Prince of Wales that one time though, luckily he got saved by a brave tourist.

**Iron_Captain**

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
If this story is true (and I suspect that it's propaganda 101) then fair play to the guy for saving lives.

In all honesty, though, I am sick to the back teeth of hearing about the British military in the Middle East. We've had two hundred years of that gak.

High time we got the hell out.

Well, seeing as that the British are to a large degree responsible for the mess the Middle East is nowadays (where did the British not make a mess

), don't you think they should help in cleaning up?

**Orlanth**

Dreadclaw69 wrote:
If true a cold bore shot from a .50cal, over a mile away, with no sighting in round is impressive.

Or lucky. It looks to me, from this armchair, like they couldn't take a sure shot from where they were and so didn't do anything earlier. However with the terrorist about to use the machete there was nothing to lose and the sniper broke the one shot one kill rule and took a professional guess as to where to aim and got lucky. Using the first kill shot as a spotting round he could dispatch the other two.
If the shot missed and hit the victim it would be more merciful than a machete hack. Machete killings are no intended to behead in one cut, they hack away is brutal to do and brutal to watch. Nothing to lose, at this point you are doing anyone who matters a favour.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Iron_Captain wrote:
Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
If this story is true (and I suspect that it's propaganda 101) then fair play to the guy for saving lives.

In all honesty, though, I am sick to the back teeth of hearing about the British military in the Middle East. We've had two hundred years of that gak.

High time we got the hell out.

Well, seeing as that the British are to a large degree responsible for the mess the Middle East is nowadays (where did the British not make a mess ), don't you think they should help in cleaning up?

Fething Blair and his warmongering. He didnt even invade for oil, the UK didnt get the oil contracts. From what I have heard he wanted in for gaks and giggles and because he thought he could spin anything his way.
Be a war leader, fun times.