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SAS sniper’s ‘one in a million’ shot slays ISIS chief

AN SAS sniper pulled off a “one in million” shot to kill an Islamic State chief at night from almost a mile away.

The elite trooper shot dead the terrorist commander with a bullet through the skull in near total darkness.

Senior defence sources said the shot was achieved at a range of more than 1,500m with a window of opportunity of just 15 seconds.

A source said: “The shot was one in a million. Getting a one-round, one-kill head shot at night using thermal imagery in a 15-second target window is about as close to impossible as you can get but he pulled it off.

“He is definitely the best sniper around at the moment.” 

The British soldier is understood to be a sergeant with the SAS G-Squadron, which has been deployed on counterterrorist operations in Syria and Iraq for the past three months.

He is a veteran of numerous operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he is said to have notched up more than 100 kills.

It is understood he was using an American-made McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle, which fires a huge .50 calibre round.

A source told the Daily Star Sunday an SAS unit got intelligence that an Isis commander was arriving at a safe house in a village close to the Syrian border. 

The source added: “The village was in the hands of Isis gunmen so there was absolutely no chance of organising a capture mission. To do so would have been suicide.

“It is always preferable to capture rather than kill because of the potential to gather more intelligence. Instead a kill mission was planned. The SAS team had hoped that the Isis commander would arrive during the day because a night shot was regarded as too dangerous.

“But as evening approached the team realised that they were going to have to either abort or go for a night shot. The sniper said he wanted to take the shot and was given a ‘go order’.”

As the car pulled up to the house, the sniper fixed his sights on a tall, turban-wearing figure who fitted the description of the commander.

He had just 15 seconds to steady himself, take aim and fire.

The source added: “The bullet struck the Isis commander in the back of the head and basically took off his face. He died instantly.”